Radiation shielding properties of tellurite-lead-tungsten glasses against gamma and beta radiations

Abstract

Tellurite-lead-tungsten glasses with the chemical composition of (80-x)TeO2-20PbO-xWO(3) (where x = 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mol%) were reported as high-performance shields for gamma and beta applications. Geant4 toolkit and XCOM program were used to simulate and calculate the gamma attenuation factors. Beta shielding beha-viour of the investigated glasses was explored by determining the CSDA range and stopping power (psi e) via ESTAR program. The results showed that the addition of WO3 has a positive influence on density, and as a result, in the shielding capability of the glass against gamma and beta radiations. This influence, however, is much stronger in the case of the shielding against gamma radiation. TPW5 glass with the highest contents of WO3 has the highest MAC, Zeff and the lowest HVL. Moreover, the glasses with low concentrations of WO3 content show the same gamma shielding properties of commercial glasses and concretes.