Radiation shielding properties of pentaternary borate glasses using MCNPX code

Abstract

The mass attenuation coefficient, effective atomic number, and half value layer of (75-x) B2O3-xBi2O3-10Na2O-10CaO-5Al2O3 glass system (x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25mol%) with potential applications as radiation shielding materials, have been investigated in the energy ranging from 31 keV to 662 keV using the MCNPX Code. Appreciable variations are found for these parameters by changing the energy of a photon well as the chemical composition of the investigated glasses. The addition of Bi2O3 to the present glasses leads to increase μ/ρ values which indicates that Bi has a strong effect on improving shielding ability of the present glass system. The numerical simulation mass attenuation coefficients are compared with theoretical data obtained from XCOM software. Satisfactory agreement reported indicates that the Monte Carlo code can be utilized to make further calculations on the radiation shielding characteristics of other glass systems, an ability especially helpful in cases where no analogous experimental results available.