Radiation shielding features of zirconolite silicate glasses using XCOM and FLUKA simulation code

This work aimed to investigate the ionizing radiation shielding features of zirconia silicate SiO2-Na2O-CaO-xZrO(2) (SCNZ) glass system. The mass attenuation coefficients (mu/rho) were generated by FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation code and the obtained data was verified via the calculated data from XCOM software over an extended photon energy range of 0.015 - 20 MeV. The obtained values of mu/rho were used to evaluate several important shielding parameters such as half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic number (Z(eff)), and effective electron density (N-eff). Results reveal that mu/rho, MFP, HVL, Z(eff), and N-eff of the investigated glasses strongly depend on photon energy and chemical composition. Additionally, by using GP fitting parameters, the exposure buildup factor (EBF) of the investigated glasses were calculated. Results show that the greatest values of buildup factors exhibit at higher energies for all glass samples. Finally, the values of fast neutron removal cross section (Sigma(R)) and the kinetic energy loss rate (Mass Stopping Power, MSP) of alphas and protons passing through the studied glasses were evaluated. Results display that the insertion of ZrO2 improves the nuclear shielding capability of SCNZ glasses. Especially, SCNZ7 glass owns superior shielding ability for charged particles as well as gamma radiation.