Evaluation of Radiation Shielding Effectiveness of Some Metallic Alloys Used in the Nuclear Facilities

Several nuclear shielding parameters were evaluated for surgical stainless steel grades 304, 304 L, 316, and 316 L. The effective atomic number Z_eff, mean free path (MFP), effective electron density N_eff, half-value layer (HVL), and effective conductivity (C_eff) of the investigated alloys were evaluated via the mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ). The mass attenuation (μ/ρ) coefficients were computed for gamma-ray photons in the energy range from 15 keV to 15 MeV using Phy-X/PSD program. Fast neutron attenuation was analyzed by computing the removal cross section (Σ_R, cm⁻¹) using partial density method. The obtained results by Phy-X/PSD program were validated using NIST XCOM and Monte Carlo (MCNP4C) code. The stopping power of these alloys against electron/proton/α-particles was evaluated using the ESTAR and SRIM Monte Carlo code, considering total stopping power and projected range. Furthermore, the transmitted neutron fraction at different neutron energies was calculated using Neutron Calculatro-V2 code. These calculations were performed for thermal neutrons (25.4 eV) and fast neutrons (with energies of 4 and 4.5 MeV). The obtained results showed that 316 L alloy possesses good protection performance against gamma photons, charged particles, fast and thermal neutrons compared with other investigated alloys. Comparison of the calculated values revealed good agreement between Phy-X/PSD, NIST XCOM, and MCNP4C. This work should be informative for the potential uses of these materials in the nuclear industry to build effective radiation shielding.