Gamma radiation shielding properties of the hematite-serpentine concrete blended with WO3 and Bi2O3 micro and nano particles using MCNPX code

Recently, due to the increasing applications of nano materials, among researchers, there has been great attention paid to the enhancement of the conventional concrete properties. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of WO3 and Bi2O3 additives in micro and nano scales on the radiation shielding properties of hematite-serpentine concrete (HSC). For this purpose, the mass attenuation coefficient (µ/ρ) for the HSC concrete blended with WO3 and Bi2O3 in both micro and nano scales was calculated using MCNPX (version 2.6.0) general purpose Monte Carlo code in the photon energy range 0.142-1.33 MeV. Considering the lattice (LAT) and universe (U) features in MCNPX code, micro and nanoparticles with sizes of 50 nm and 50 µm were designed inside HSC concrete, respectively. The results showed that the values of µ/ρ of nanoparticles were higher than those of micro-particles at all selected energies. Additionally, the µ/ρ values of HSC which include Bi2O3 nano particles were higher than that of corresponding WO3 mixtures. It can be concluded that the addition of nanoparticles into HSC leads to improvement in radiation shielding characteristics, with potential applications in civil engineering constructions and potential usage as building material for nuclear facilities.