Radiation shielding properties of mortars containing heavyweight particles

Abstract

In this study, iron, steel and chromium waste heavyweight particles were replaced by calcerous sand with different percentages in volume and the radiation shielding properties of resulting mortar samples were investigated. On the other hand, the effects of the physical properties of particles and samples on shielding properties is also discussed. In the scope of this work, the radiation shielding properties of mortar samples were measured by determining the values of mass attenuation coefficients by means of an experimental setup consisting of 133Ba, 137Cs and 60Co standard point sources and high purity germanium (HPGe) detector. It’s concluded that the highest mass attenuation coefficient values among the heavy particles were achieved by chromium particles. However, all the high density particles used in the study improved the radiation shielding properties of the mortars considerably compared to ordinary mortars.