RESUMEN
The present investigation was aimed at the utilization of alternate materials, emphasizing hazardous industrial products (red mud and cathode ray tubes), as constituents of radiation shielding concrete. The usage of these hazardous industrial products improves the sustainability and performance of the radiation shielding concrete. Five concrete blocks were cast and their density, compressive strength, gamma shielding factors, radiation absorption ratio, and transmission factor were explored. For this purpose, gamma-ray shielding measurements were done with the help of an HPGe detector. Mix-1, with zero contents of red mud and CRTs, had the lowest LAC. The LAC results demonstrated that the shielding performance of the current concretes would be better with the increase in red mud and cathode ray tube glass. The Transmission factor (TF) for the prepared concretes with a thickness of 2 cm varied between 11.9-26.1% at 0.06 MeV, while it varied between 4-13% for a thickness of 3 cm. The TF results showed that the composites with a thickness of 2, 3, or 5 cm are good shields against lower energy radiation. The radiation absorption ratio (RAR) for the prepared concretes is high at low energy, suggesting that these new composites can absorb most of the low-energy photons. The RAR results emphasize that the increase in CRTs in the new composites enhanced the radiation shielding features, and when the CRT glass is at a maximum, more attenuation was achieved.
RESUMEN
In recent years, the preference for using lead-free radiation protection shields has increased because of concerns regarding lead poisoning and leakage. In medical and research laboratories, glass shields are preferred because of their transparency. In this study, various glass shields were examined and compared based on the international standards. One commercially available lead-based shield, four recently studied shields, and three new lead-free shields were considered, and their shielding factors were calculated. We presented three glasses based on borate, phosphate, and silicate compounds, which were named Ir1, Ir2, and Ir3, respectively. Based on the International Electrotechnical Commission standard (IEC 61331), the air-kerma ratios (attenuation ratios) and lead equivalent values were derived using Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) calculations, and mass attenuation coefficients and effective atomic numbers (Zeff) of all the shields were obtained from XCOM database, in the diagnostic X-ray energy range of 40-120 keV. In addition, some measurements were performed for the reference (lead-based) glass to validate the simulations. The above-mentioned factors for silicate-bismuth-based (Ir3) and borosilicate-barium-based (Tu) glasses were found to be higher than the others and comparable to those of commercially available lead-based glass. In conclusion, Ir3 and Tu glasses were found to be the preferred lead-free transparent shields in the diagnostic X-ray energy range.