Evaluation of Gamma Radiation Attenuation Characteristics of Different Type Shielding Materials used in Nuclear Medicine Services

Abstract

Gamma-ray radiation shielding properties such as linear attenuation coefficient (m), mass attenuation coefficient (m/r), half- value thickness (HVT), tenth value thickness (TVL) and mean free path (MFP) were calculated for different types of radiation absorbing materials such as Concrete, Aluminum, Iron, Copper, Lead, Lead-glass and Tungsten. These materials are being widely used as radiation shielding materials in different areas of nuclear medicine facilities for different purposes. The XCOM and in-house developed computer program were used to calculate the above mentioned parameters for gamma-ray energies of 100 keV, 200 keV and 511 keV. The gamma-ray energy range used in nuclear medicine is between 100 keV and 511 keV. Results show that attenuation coefficient decreases with increase of gamma-ray energy, and attenuation coefficient increases with increase of density and shows significant variation for different materials. Linear attenuation coefficient depends on the energy of incident gamma-rays and the nature of the absorbing materials. These gamma-ray attenuation parameters of different absorbing materials can be used for proper shielding design of syringe shield, isotope storage container, isotope transport container, personnel protective shield barrier, radioactive waste storage facility etc. in nuclear medicine services.
 Bangladesh J. Nuclear Med. 21(2): 108-114, July 2018

Enhancing Shielding Efficiency of Ordinary and Barite Concrete in Radiation Shielding Utilizations

“…In other words, high RPE is desirable because it provides greater safety for those working near or with radiation sources. Materials with high protection e ciency are crucial in environments with higher radiation intensity, ensuring optimal shielding to minimize the risk of harmful effects from ionizing radiation exposure 57 . Several factors contribute to radiation protection e ciency, including the type of radiation, the shielding material used, and the thickness of the shielding material 91 .…”

Comparative Study of Gamma- Ray Shielding Parameters for Different Epoxy Composites

“…There are basic quantities which determine the scattering and absorption of photons in the matter 17 . The probability of radiation interacting with a matter per unit path length is defined as the linear attenuation coefficient.…”

“…The gamma mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) value of epoxy shields at an energy range from 0.1 to 15 MeV is shown in Fig 3 . It is obvious from the figure that (µ/ρ) depending on the density of the shielding materials and photon energy also; it is a related directly to the shield density and inversely proportional to the incident photon energy. The shielding efficiency of gamma radiation depends on the interaction of gamma with matter by three methods: photoelectric effect in low energy region (E < 0.8 MeV), Compton scattering in intermediate energy region (beginning 0.8 MeV to < 8 MeV), and pair production in high energy region (E > 8 MeV) 17,32 . In the Photoelectric area the µ/ρ values for the epoxy samples are rapidly decreasing with the energy increases, this decrease occurs due to the dependence of the cross section of the photoelectric absorption with the photon energy.…”

“…The parameters such as thickness and energy were used as inputs in the ANN for estimation of (µ/ρ) and dose rate. µ/ρ obtained by MCNP, ANN and Win X-Com for different energies was displayed in Table 2 17 . This Table represents the comparison of (µ/ρ) of epoxy samples with MCNP-5 model, X-com program, and ANN technique at energy range (1-10 MeV).…”

Gamma radiation attenuation characteristics of composites based on polyimide track membranes filled with nanodispersed Pb

“…To protect against X-ray and γ-radiation, protective screens are used, the filler of which are materials with a high atomic number and high density (W, Bi, Fe, Pb, Ni, etc.) (Sverguzova et al, 2019;Mollah, 2018).…”