Evaluation of γ-rays and neutron shielding parameters of high dense bismo-boro-tellurite glasses: Comparative study

The main high energy radiation-matter interaction parameters of the 30B2O3-(70-x)TeO2-xBi2O3, where x = 40, 50, 60 and 70 mol% (BTB) glasses have been studied in the wide energy range. The theoretical calculations were made for some special X and γ-ray energies emitted from Fe (55), Am (241), Cs (137) and Co (60) radioactive sources for photon energies in the range of 15 keV - 15 MeV. All evaluated radiation shielding parameters were compared with some selected concretes (Ordinary concrete (OC), Hematite-Serpenite (HS) and Basalt-Magnetide (BM)), and glasses (Te and Pb based). The BTB- glasses have higher mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) values than other glasses (Te and Pb based) and concretes (OC, HS, and BM). The half value layer (HVL) of the investigated BTB-glasses has the following trend: OC > HS > BM > Te-Glass > Pb-glass > BTB40 > BTB50 > BTB60 > BTB70. In terms of mean free path (MFP), the BTB70 coded glass has the lowest MFP values due to the highest Bi2O3 content. In terms of the Zeff values of BTB coded glasses vary between 70 and 75 at the lowest energy level. The effective atomic number (Zeff) values in this energy region were 48.974 and 63.102 for Te and Pb glasses, respectively, and 13,339, 15.520 and 15.894 for OC, HS and BM concretes. The BTB-coded glasses have lower exposure buildup factor (EBF) than all other glass and concrete up to 3 MeV photon energies. The energy absorption buildup factor (EABF) values range from 1 to 4.2 for all samples at 1 MFP and at 40 MFP values, it reaches 108 for BTB coded glasses and 1010 for Te-based glass. Results confirmed that BTB- glasses, especially BTB70 glass sample can be used in applications requiring radiation safety.