Investigations of radiation shielding using Monte Carlo method and elastic properties of PbO-SiO2-B2O3-Na2O glasses

Several physical parameters such as the packing density (PD), oxygen molar volume (OMV), oxygen packing density (OPD) and the elastic moduli of the quaternary glass system xPbO-(30-x)SiO2-46.67B2O3-23.33Na2O (x = 0, 5, 10 and 15 mol%) have been evaluated. The elastic moduli were computed according to Makishima-Mackenzie model and Rocherulle model. The values of these moduli have been compared to their experimental values. Moreover, different shielding parameters such as mass attenuation coefficients (MAC), half value layer (HVL), mean free path (MFP), effective atomic numbers (EAN), effective electron densities (EED) and buildup factors have been evaluated using the WinXcom program in the energy range 0.015-15 MeV for the quaternary studied glass system. The MAC values have been compared with MCNPX (version 2.6.0) Monte Carlo code. Besides, mass stopping power (MSP) for proton, alpha and electron as well as the removal cross section for fast neutron (∑R) have been calculated. The results observed that the composition has the highest value of PbO (15 mol %) showed excellent nuclear radiation shielding and elastic properties.