Radiation protection efficiency of newly produced W-based alloys: Experimental and computational study

Tungsten based alloy is one of the materials which has great attention and can be used as gamma-ray shields, radiation source collimator, spallation neutron source target, plasma facing materials, etc. The motivation of the study is to produce new tungsten based alloys and determine the radiation protection characteristics of the alloys that can be used for radiation related applications. In this context, five tungsten based alloys (WxTayCr10Ni10Fe10Mo10) were produced and the dependence of radiation shielding ability on the changes in W and Ta concentration was investigated. The photon protection parameters such as linear attenuation coefficients, mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic number, mean free path, half-value layer, exposure and energy absorption buildup factors, effective conductivity, effective electron number, atomic and electronic cross sections, and fast neutron removal cross-sections of the alloys were determined by Phy-X/PSD code. Additionally, XRD, EPR and SEM-EDS experimental results were evaluated for the investigation of spectroscopic characteristics. The crystallite sizes of the alloys were calculated by Debye-Scherrer method depending on the XRD phases in order to perform the structural characterization. It is concluded that a relationship exists between the crystallite size and photon attenuation. It may be stated that the increase in the amount of W improves the gamma radiation protection efficiency of the alloys. It is also seen that the fast neutron attenuation feature increases proportionally with W content. It is determined that the tungsten based alloys can be used as good radiation protection materials in radiation related applications.