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is about 662 keV. These gamma rays can be used, for example, in radiotherapy such as for the treatment of cancer, in food irradiation, or in industrial gauges or sensors. 137 Cs is not widely used for industrial radiography as other nuclides, such as cobalt-60 or iridium-192, offer higher radiation output for a given volume.
Personal shielding against more energetic radiation such as gamma radiation is very difficult to achieve as the large mass of shielding material required to properly protect the entire body would make functional movement nearly impossible. For this, partial body shielding of radio-sensitive internal organs is the most viable protection strategy.
A lead castle built to shield a radioactive sample in a lab. The bricks are flat-sided Example of chevron lead bricks used to prevent shine paths. A lead castle, also called a lead cave or a lead housing, is a structure composed of lead to provide shielding against gamma radiation in a variety of applications in the nuclear industry and other activities which use ionizing radiation.
Lead shielding refers to the use of lead as a form of radiation protection to shield people or objects from radiation so as to reduce the effective dose. Lead can effectively attenuate certain kinds of radiation because of its high density and high atomic number; principally, it is effective at stopping gamma rays and x-rays.
For the purposes of radiation shielding, many materials have a characteristic halving thickness: the thickness of a layer of a material sufficient to reduce gamma radiation exposure by 50%. Halving thicknesses of common materials include: 1 cm (0.4 inch) of lead, 6 cm (2.4 inches) of concrete, 9 cm (3.6 inches) of packed earth or 150 m (500 ft ...
By causing the materials to become radioactive (mainly by neutron activation, or in presence of high-energy gamma radiation by photodisintegration). By nuclear transmutation of the elements within the material including, for example, the production of Hydrogen and Helium which can in turn alter the mechanical properties of the materials and ...
The gamma rays emitted from radium 226, accounting for 4% of the radiation, are harmful to humans with sufficient exposure. Gamma rays are highly penetrating and some can pass through metals, so Geiger counters or a scintillation probe are used to measure gamma ray exposures when monitoring for NORM.
For example, gamma rays that require 1 cm (0.4 inch) of lead to reduce their intensity by 50% will also have their intensity reduced in half by 4.1 cm of granite rock, 6 cm (2.5 inches) of concrete, or 9 cm (3.5 inches) of packed soil. However, the mass of this much concrete or soil is only 20–30% greater than that of lead with the same ...