Research on the effects of bismuth borate glass system on nuclear radiation shielding parameters

Abstract

There has been an increasing number of research and development activities focusing on the use of different glass systems for their nuclear radiation shielding features. In this study a simulation study has been carried out at a wide photon energy region in order to investigate the radiation protection feature of bismuth borate glasses. This study has been conducted to evaluate the proficiency level of six different glass systems (70-x)B2O3 + xBi2O3 + 15ZnO + 15Na2O (where x = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mol%) exposed to photon, charged particle (H1) and (He+2) and neutron. For this investigation, transmission factors (TF), mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), half value layer (HVL), tenth value layer (TVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Zeff), effective electron density (Neff) have been computed. The results confirm that the parameters of the examined glasses MAC, HVL, TVL, MFP, Zeff, and Neff are associated with photon energy and chemical composition. In addition, neutron effective cross-sections (∑R) have been computed for bismuth borates and it was seen a good harmony. The computations for present samples have been examined over a broad energy range from 0.01 to 20 MeV and theoretical results have been obtained by using MCNPX software for transmission factors. In addition, simulation results have been calculated with the WinXCom program. Furthermore, MSP and PR calculations of the bismuth borate glass have been performed to figure out the radiation shielding features. For that reason, the SRIM code has been used to simulate H1 and He+2 particles. Considering the results obtained from this research, which examines the radiation protection of bismuth borate glasses, indicates that the best shielding achievement (while the HVL, TVL, MFP, TF have the lowest and the highest (∑R) values) is reached at 25% Bi2O3. As can be seen in the results, the addition of bismuth affirms that the use of such glass systems improves the radiation protection feature. In particular, 25%Bi2O3 glass system has been proved to show superior shielding properties for gamma radiation in combination with charged particles. Since the glass sample with the highest bismuth additive is 25%Bi2O3, the most radiation protection effect is also seen in this example. The obtained material has a satisfactory radiation shielding property as bismuth is added to the mixture.