Abstract
The growing role of nuclear radiation in various domains necessitated a continuous development in enhancing the efficiency of radiation shielding materials. Generally, a shield that has the ability to attenuate thermal and fast neutrons and gamma rays simultaneously is the most effective in various applications. Therefore, in this article, a host glass of sodium silicate (labeled as BSiBi0) was reinforced by 10, 20, 30, and 40 mol% of each of Bi and B ions simultaneously (BSiBi1, BSiBi2, BSiBi3, and BSiBi4, respectively) to produce an integrated shield capable of attenuating thermal and fast neutrons and gamma rays. To check the attenuation efficiency of the proposed glasses, fast neutrons removal cross-sections S_F, thermal neutrons total macroscopic cross-sections S_Th, total mass attenuation coefficients µ_m, linear attenuation coefficients µ, mean free paths MFP, half-value layers HVL, effective atomic numbers (Z_eff), effective electron densities (N_eff), and buildup factors for energy absorption EABF and exposure EBF were studied extensively. Compared to the host glass (BSiBi0), the attenuation of gamma rays in the BSiBi4 glass (40 mol% of each of Bi2O3 and B2O3) improved by 3.9%-92.5% in the studied energy range. While, its ability to attenuate the fast neutrons improved by 86.0%, and thermal neutrons by 1402.4%. Hence, the BSiBi4 glass was nominated as an efficient shield in relevant applications due to its high attenuation ability for both neutrons and gamma rays.
