Optimal composition for radiation shielding in BTCu-x glass systems as determined by FLUKA simulation

Abstract

In various medical, industrial, and nuclear facilities, it is very necessary to have enough shielding against the radiation released by regularly employed isotopes. In this work, we concentrate on nuclear security as well as the radiation shielding against gamma attenuation capabilities of the borate glasses, including Te and Cu. These glasses have the chemical form of (100-x)[30B2O3–70TeO2]-xCuO, where x = 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02 wt%. The systems were represented by five distinct samples, labelled as BTCu-20, BTCu-15, BTCu-10, BTCu-5, and BTCu-0, where the number refers to the percentage of CuO in the mixture and the remainder is made up of TeO2 and B2O3. Through the use of FLUKA simulations, the basic characteristics associated with gamma shieldings, such as attenuation and transmission factors, were examined for the particular energy range of 238–1408 MeV emitted from 133Ba, 137Cs, 60Co, 152Eu, and 232Th. The effect of the systematic replacement of CuO by B2O3 and TeO2 on the shielding qualities was explored in depth for gamma radiation. In addition, comparison research was carried out between the currently available borate glasses and the traditional shielding materials. According to the findings of the current investigation, the GHVL was found to be its lowest at 238 keV with values of 0.87, 0.92, 0.98, 1.04, and 1.10 (cm) for BTCu-0, BTCu-5, BTCu-10, BTCu-15, and BTCu-20 glasses, respectively. This points to the possibility that the BTCu-0 sample might be used in radiation shielding applications, which would result in increased nuclear safety. © 2023 The Authors