Study of Neutron and Gamma Radiation Protective Shield

Due to the development of nuclear technology and use of these technologies in various fields of industry, medicine, research and etc, protection against radioactive rays is one of the most important topics in this field .The purpose of this is to reduce the dose rate from radioactive sources. The sources in terms of components are emitted various types of nuclear radiation with different energies. These radiations are involving of alpha particles, beta, and neutron and gamma radiation. Given that alpha and beta particles can be fully absorbed by the shield, the main issue in the debate protection radioactive rays is stopping of gamma rays and neutrons. Accordingly in shield design usually two types of radiation should be considered. First, X-rays and gamma rays, which have great influence, and by the mass of any suitable material, can be more efficiently attenuate the higher the density, the better the potential attenuation effect against gamma rays and the required shielding thickness decreases. The second type of radiation is neutrons. Often a combination of three materials is desirable that include heavy metals, light metals, and neutron-absorbing material to omit the slow neutrons through adsorption to the neutron shield. There are different materials that can be used to shielding against radioactive rays. The main materials that are used in protection include: water, lead, graphite, iron, compounds that contains B, concrete, and polyethylene. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is evaluating the kind of shield against gamma and neutrons rays.