Investigating the shielding properties of leaded and lead-free phosphate glass against photons using MCNPX Monte Carlo code

Today, the use of lead-containing glasses and heavy transparent shields in various medical applications of radiation, including diagnostic radiology procedures, especially in angiography departments, has become very popular. In such departments, roof shields, transparent shields, and glasses made of lead glass are widely used for the radiation protection of personnel. In this study, the MCNPX Monte Carlo simulation code was used to design transparent and lead-free shields that can be used for radiation protection. For this purpose, two types of phosphate glass containing different percentages of heavy materials were simulated and compared with each other in terms of attenuation coefficients of photons with different energies. After simulating different glass types, the mass attenuation coefficients of each sample were calculated for single-energy photons. After that, by simulating the X-ray spectra used in angiography, the thicknesses of the first and second half-value layers were calculated for each spectrum. The results of this study show that the simulated values of the mass attenuation coefficient of glass types show good agreement with the results of XCOM. According to the results, the designed lead-free glass types have an attenuation comparable to leaded shields, which can be used as a suitable alternative to leaded glass types.