A comparative Study Between Fluka and Microshield Modeling Calculations to study the Radiation‐Shielding of Nanoparticles and Plastic Waste composites

Abstract

Abstract A comparative study has been conducted by using Monte Carlo FLUKA code and Microshieldsoftware programs to study the radiation shielding properties of plastic waste mixed with nano copper oxide (CuO) and phosphotungstic acid (PTA). The variousdiverse percentages of new nanocomposite have been prepared using the compression moulding technique, then they are characterized using Fourier transfer infrared spectrophotometer (FT‐IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The new nanocomposite has been established as a effective shielding material towards gamma radiation due to the presence of dense materials, like nano copper oxide and phosphotungstic acid. The gamma radiation attenuation has been established by using the previously mentioned methods. The results have proved that the mass attenuation coefficients (μ m ) and effective atomic (Z eff ), and electron densities (N el ) of the samples increased with increasing the phosphotungstic acid (PTA) content while the half‐value layer (HVL), the tenth value layer (TVL), and the mean free path (MFP) decreased as PTA increased.