The Vital Role of La2O3 on the La2O3-CaO-B2O3-SiO2 Glass System for Shielding Some Common Gamma Ray Radioactive Sources

The role La₂O₃ on the radiation shielding properties of La₂O₃-CaO-B₂O₃-SiO₂ glass systems was investigated. The energies were selected between 0.284 and 1.275 MeV and Phy-X software was used for the calculations. BLa10 glass had the least linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) at all the tested energies, while BLa30 had the greatest, which indicated that increasing the content of La₂O₃ in the BLa-X glasses enhances the shielding performance of these glasses. The mass attenuation coefficient (MAC) of BLa15 decreases from 0.150 cm²/g to 0.054 cm²/g at energies of 0.284 MeV and 1.275 MeV, respectively, while the MAC of BLa25 decreases from 0.164 cm²/g to 0.053 cm²/g for the same energies, respectively. At all energies, the effective atomic number (Z_eff) values follow the trend BLa10 < BLa15 < BLa20 < BLa25 < BLa30. The half value thickness (HVL) of the BLa-X glass shields were also investigated. The minimum HVL values are found at 0.284 MeV. The HVL results demonstrated that BLa30 is the most space-efficient shield. The tenth value layer (TVL) results demonstrated that the glasses are more effective attenuators at lower energies, while decreasing in ability at greater energies. These mean free path results proved that increasing the density of the glasses, by increasing the amount of La₂O₃ content, lowers MFP, and increases attenuation, which means that BLa30, the glass with the greatest density, absorbs the most amount of radiation.