Comparison of Lead and WC-Co Materials against Gamma Irradiation

According to RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive of European Union it is restricted using lead in many equipment and applications. It is possible to enlarge the restriction of lead usage in some other applications which is including some of nuclear applications in the future. Therefore new materials or systems need to be developed instead of lead as radiation shielding materials and/or collimators. In this study pure tungsten, tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) materials were investigated against gamma radiation. For gamma radiation Cs-137 and Co-60 gamma radioisotope sources were used. The linear and mass attenuations were calculated. The experimental results were compared with XCOM computer code. Usage possibilities of WC-Co instead of lead in nuclear applications as gamma shielding material were discussed. It has been investigated that the linear gamma attenuation coefficients of lead and WC-Co are very close to each other. Therefore it could be said that WC-Co materials is an alternative promising material which could be used instead of lead as gamma shielding material and/or collimator.