Shielding behaviour of (20 + x) Bi2O3 – 20BaO–10Na2O–10MgO–(40-x) B2O3: An experimental and Monte Carlo study

In this study, (20 + x) Bi2O3 – 20BaO – 10Na2O – 10MgO – (40-x) B2O3 (where x = 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mol%) are fabricated by the melt quenching method. The various radiation shielding parameters for the present glasses are determined experimentally using the gamma spectrometric system and Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code System-extended (MCNPX). The mass attenuation coefficient and the effective atomic number are found to be dependent on the photon energy, the glass composition and the concentration of Bi2O3. The results reveal that Bi40B20 sample with the maximum amount of Bi2O3 has the lowest MFP and HVL values among all the other samples as well as the other standard shielding glasses. The radiation shielding efficiency also is calculated and the result shows that the present glass samples can highly attenuate low energetic gamma photons, while the capability to attenuate the incident photons is minimized with increasing the photon energy.