Numerical simulation and experimental study of PbWO4/EPDM and Bi2WO6/EPDM for the shielding of γ-rays*

The MCNP5 code was employed to simulate the γ-ray shielding capacity of tungstate composites. The experimental results were applied to verify the applicability of the Monte Carlo program. PbWO4 and Bi2WO6 were prepared and added into ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) to obtain the composites, which were tested in the γ-ray shielding. Both the theoretical simulation and experiments were carefully chosen and well designed. The results of the two methods were found to be highly consistent. In addition, the conditions during the numerical simulation were optimized and double-layer γ-ray shielding systems were studied. It was found that the γ-ray shielding performance can be influenced not only by the material thickness ratio but also by the arrangement of the composites.