Monte Carlo simulations of radiation shielding by rare-earth/polypropylene composites

Four different rare-earth/polypropylene (PP) composites used rare-earth oxides as radiation shielding agents. Monte Carlo simulations with FLUKA software were used to analyze the gamma-ray shielding from 60-keV gamma rays. The simulated shielding effects of the rare-earth/PP composites were compared in detail with those of PbO/PP composites. When Gd2O3 was used as a filler, its composite had the best shielding effect. The composite thickness and the mass fraction of the filler affected the shielding. To exhibit the same shielding, the thickness and filler content of the Gd2O3/PP composite was only 46% of that for PbO/PP. The error of the mass attenuation coefficient between the simulated and the calculated results was within 5%, which verified the simulations.