Author(s)

A. M. Madbouly, E. R. Atta^*

Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority, Cairo, Egypt.

In this work, the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead oxide and the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead nitrate composites were prepared as gamma-radiation shielding materials. The investigated materials were prepared with three different weight percentage of lead oxide and lead nitrate (30, 50 and 70 wt%). The mass attenuation coefficients (μ_m) for all composite samples were measured experimentally at 511 and 661.6 keV photon energies. The measurements were made by performing transmission experiments with a 3'' × 3'' NaI (Tl) scintillation detector, which had an energy resolution of 7% at 0.662 MeV for the gamma-rays from the decay of ¹³⁷Cs. The effective atomic numbers (Z_eff) and the effective electron densities (N_eff) were determined experimentally. Also they were determined theoretically using the obtained μ_m values for the studied composites samples by WinXCom program. The obtained results show that the experimental values of the composites are found to be in a good agreement with the theoretical values. It is recognized that the mass attenuation coefficient (μ_m), effective atomic numbers (Z_eff) and the effective electron densities (N_eff) are increased in the composite samples which contain lead oxides than which contain lead nitrates. Finally, the Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead oxide is better than Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR)/lead nitrate polymer as gamma radiation shielding.

Leads Oxide, Lead Nitrate, Mass Attenuation Coefficient, Electron Density, Effective Atomic Number, XCOM Program, Gamma Ray, Shielding

Madbouly, A. and Atta, E. (2016) Comparative Study between Lead Oxide and Lead Nitrate Polymer as Gamma-Radiation Shielding Materials. Journal of Environmental Protection, 7, 268-276. doi: 10.4236/jep.2016.72023.