| Abstract: |
Radiation protection materials, such as lead (Pb), water, concrete, steel, and aluminum, have been successfully used for decades. Although they are effective shields, these materials do have limitations. For example, lead is heavy and toxic, and water and concrete must be thick to provide significant shielding, all of which renders these materials prohibitive for certain applications. For example, the half-value layer for water to shield against 60Co is 30.48 cm (12"), which makes it an extremely bulky material. The development of ClearView Radiation ShieldingTM addresses some of the limitations that are faced by traditional radiation protection shields. The product is a transparent liquid gamma radiation shield that can be fabricated in custom sizes and thicknesses. Here, we describe applications of ClearView Radiation Shielding in nuclear plants and hospitals. ClearView Radiation Shielding is used to shield nuclear power plant workers from 60Co in critical path and high dose in refueling outages to observe automated operations inside the containment, and operations such as cylindrical frisking stations and benchtop sampling. ClearView Radiation Shielding is designed as rolling shields and radionuclide containments in hospitals to protect staff and families during unsealed radionuclide treatment such as MIBG and Lutetium therapies. For successful implementation in hospitals, the product was tested against various radioisotopes, also described in this work. Operational uses of ClearView Radiation Shielding in commercial nuclear and medical industries allows staff working in radioactive environments visibility, better communication and similar levels of radiation protection compared with traditional shielding materials. The product helps improve workflows and reduced total dose received by workers. Additionally, attenuation measurements using ClearView Radiation Shielding against multiple isotopes was performed. With 1.25 cm (0.5") ClearView Radiation Shielding thickness, the shield attenuated 1) 65% of the effective dose from 131I, 2) 35.15% of the effective dose from 137Cs, and 3) 22.5% of the effective dose from 60Co. Isotopes in the range of 35 keV to 1899 keV. 3.81 were attenuated greater than 90% with a ClearView Radiation Shielding shield thickness of 7.62 cm (3"). The half-value layer for 60Co with a ClearView Radiation Shielding thickness of 3.81 cm (1.5") attenuated the effective dose of 18F gammas by 85.59%. With a density of 2.3 g cm-3, ClearView Radiation Shielding was measured to be half the weight of lead for equal shielding. ClearView Radiation Shielding is transparent, lightweight, and an alternative material to conventional radiation shields to reduce radiation exposure. © Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. |
