Radiation shielding features using MCNPX code and mechanical properties of the PbO-Na2O-B2O3-CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass systems

The novel glasses with compositions PbO-Na2B4O7- CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 glasses are prepared by the melt quenching technique. The radiation shielding and mechanical properties of the prepared glasses are presented and discussed in details. The mass attenuation coefficient (mu/rho) which is the basic parameter in the evaluation of the radiation interaction with shielding materials was calculated according to MCNPX code, and the results were compared with those obtained by XCOM program. The simulation results match most of the XCOM data very well. Additionally, the results revealed that both (mu/rho) and the effective atomic number (Z(eff) ) of the prepared glasses increase with increasing lead monoxide from 0 to 50 mol. %. Also, the difference of HVL values of the prepared glass samples and that for the pure lead decrease when the concentration of lead monoxide increases. It is found that the removal cross-sections, Sigma(R) values for the prepared glasses lie within the range 0.1006-0.1215 cm(-1).