Nuclear radiation shielding and mechanical properties of colemanite mineral doped concretes

The present research focused on the investigation of photon and fast neutron shielding parameters of colemanite mineral doped and undoped concretes. The fabricated concretes have been exposed to gamma rays at 59.5 and 81 keV energies and the measurements have been carried out with NaI(Tl) detector. The parameters of effective atomic number (Z(eff)) and electron density (N-el) have been determined experimentally and theoretically. The exposure buildup factor (EBF) and energy absorption buildup factor (EBF) have been computed utilizing the Geometric progression (G-P) fitting method. In addition to the photon shielding parameters, the macroscopic effective removal cross-section calculations for fast neutron (sigma(R)) were performed. As a result, it was observed that the concretes doped with colemanite mineral are not very effective in gamma radiation shielding. On the contrary, it was observed that concretes with colemanite were more effective in shielding fast neutrons and the fast neutron removal cross-section values increased with increasing colemanite concentration in the concrete. Additionally, compressive strength values (MPa) of concretes were tested using ALFA TESTING (B001-PC) 200 tons capacity device.