Radiation shielding and effective atomic number studies in different types of shielding concretes, lead base and non-lead base glass systems for total electron interaction: A comparative study

• Radiation shielding calculations for concretes and glass systems.
• Assigning effective atomic number for the given materials for total electron interaction.
• Glass systems generally have better shielding ability than concretes.

Concrete has been widely used as a radiation shielding material due to its extremely low cost. On the other hand, glass systems, which make everything inside visible to observers, are considered as promising shielding materials as well. In the present work, the effective atomic numbers, Zeff of some concretes and glass systems (industrial waste containing glass, Pb base glass and non-Pb base glass) have been calculated for total electron interaction in the energy region of 10 keV–1 GeV. Also, the continuous slowing down approximation (CSDA) ranges for the given materials have been calculated in the wide energy region to show the shielding effectiveness of the given materials. The glass systems are not only compared to different types of concretes but also compared to the lead base glass systems in terms of shielding. Moreover, the obtained results for total electron interaction have been compared to the results for total photon interaction wherever possible. In general, it has been observed that the glass systems have superior properties than most of the concretes over the high-energy region with respect to the electron interaction. Also, glass systems without lead show better electron stopping than lead base glasses at some energy regions as well. Along with the photon attenuation capability, it is seen that Fly Ash base glass systems have not only greater electron stopping capability but also have greater photon attenuation especially in high energy region when compared with standard shielding concretes.