Developed a New Radiation Shielding Absorber Composed of Waste Marble, Polyester, PbCO3, and CdO to Reduce Waste Marble Considering Environmental Safety

Abstract

The usage of radiation is mandatory for modern life; in the same manner, controlling the outflow of harmful radiation is vital and could be achieved via employing a shielding material to eliminate any potential nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents. Considering this point, this study aims to manufacture composite samples based on waste marble as novel radiation shields. The physical and radiation shielding ability of the prepared shields were determined and analyzed. For this purpose, a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used to detect the incoming photons emitted from three point sources (Am-241, Cs-137, and Co-60). The radiation attenuation factors for the new marble-based composites were measured for some energies, ranging from 0.06 to 1.333 MeV. We examined the effect of increasing the PbCO3 and CdO contents on the physical properties and radiation attenuation factors of the newly developed radiation shielding absorber. We found that the density of the samples increases from 1.784 to 1.796 g/cm3 when the CdO changes from 0 to 12.5 wt%. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) for all marble compositions has the maximum value at 0.06 MeV, while the LAC decreases with increasing energy. The highest LAC was found for Marb-3, with a composition of waste marble (50 wt%), polyester (25 wt%), PbCO3 (17.5 wt%), and CdO (7.5 wt%). We studied the impact of the addition of CdO on the expense of PbCO3 and we found that the half value layer (HVL) decreases with increasing the CdO content. Hence, when there is no space problem, the newly developed radiation shielding absorber can be used to maintain the cost effectiveness and environmentally friendliness of products.