The impact of Gd2O3 on nuclear safety proficiencies of TeO2-ZnO-Nb2O5 glasses: A GEANT4 Monte Carlo study

Abstract

This work was carried out to specify the effect of Gd2O3 on the gamma and neutron radiation shielding capacities of tellurite rich glasses with 75TeO(2)+15ZnO+(10-x)Nb2O5+xGd(2)O(3) (TZNG), where (x = 0, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 mol%) nominal composition. The mass attenuation coefficients (mu/rho) of the studied glasses were acquired with GEANT4 Monte Carlo codes and the results were found to match the theoretical Phy-X values. Next, the variables of Effective atomic number (Z(eff)), Half Value Layer (HVL) and Mean Free Path (MFP) were calculated employing mu/rho values. According to the corollaries, the increment of Gd2O3 insertion to the tellurite based glasses was enhanced the mu rho and Z(eff) values for total photon, electron, proton and alpha interactions whereas it was dropped the HVL and MFP values. It is also observed that the total stopping powers of the glasses for electron interaction were declined. The geometric progression (GP) approximation was employed to determine the exposure buildup factor (EBF) for the proposed glasses. The EBFs showed the lowest values for TZNG-E glass with 2.5% mole Gd2O3 addition. Finally, the fast neutron reduction capacity of the TZNG glasses was surveyed by calculating the effective removal cross-sections (Sigma(R)) of the glasses. It is determined that the Sigma(R) values increased with enhancing Gd2O3 content since the addition of Gd2O3 increased the glass density. Consequently, the TZNG-E glass with the highest Gd2O3 additive is the more skillful nominee for gamma-ray and neutron security applications among the investigated glasses.