Shielding capabilities study of light-gray, pale-pink and orange-pink Zacatecan quarries against ionizing photons using EDXRF and XCOM code

Abstract

In this work the shielding capacity of three quarries widely used in the construction industry in Mexico has been determined. The reported features include the mass interaction coefficients, the linear attenuation coefficients and the average value layers. The Energy Dispersed X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) shows that an element such as oxygen (contained in Portland concrete and gypsum, but not in quarries), which alone is irrelevant to shield ionizing energies, may become relevant to explain the shielding capacity of materials. The total linear attenuation coefficients and the half value layers were calculated for photon energies related to the medical field. Our results show that light-gray, pale-pink and orange-pink Zacatecan quarries shield ionizing photons below 70 keV three times better that gypsum and that they shield even better than Portland concrete. The experimental photon transmission of 0.662 MeV γ-rays in terms of the thickness of the G1, G2 and G3 quarries, adjusts without significant differences to the provisions of the attenuation law.