Monte Carlo simulation of a waste soda–lime–silica glass system containing Sb2O3 for gamma-ray shielding

Abstract

Gamma radiation has destructive effects on persons who are exposed to it and can cause damage to healthy tissues. Therefore, shielding materials are necessary for protecting against it. For this purpose, the attenuation characteristics of S-type glass – namely, soda–lime–silica glass (SLS) – which was doped with antimony (III) oxide (Sb2O3) were obtained by using the MCNPX code, and the results were compared with the XCOM software findings. The results of the attenuation parameters for four types of glass materials – namely, SLS (no addition of antimony (III) oxide), SLSS1 (0.005% antimony (III) oxide), SLSS2 (0.05% antimony (III) oxide) and SLSS3 (0.5% antimony (III) oxide) – show that with increasing energy levels, the linear attenuation coefficient decreases. For lower energy, μ has a sharp decrease, but the curve behavior is stable at higher energy. The XCOM calculations were done for a wide range of energies between 1 and 1 × 108 keV. Moreover, it is observed that the variations in the composition rates that lead to changes in the density of the glass system can affect the linear attenuation coefficients. Based on the obtained results of the linear attenuation coefficients, other parameters of the glass system such as the half-value layer and the tenth-value layer for the energies of 662, 1173 and 1332 keV were calculated. Additionally, the results also show that with increasing antimony (III) oxide contents, the thickness of the glass decreases.