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This study has established the radiation shielding efficacy of zircaloy-2 and zircaloy-4 over a wide spectrum of energy levels. Using the Monte Carlo method, the gamma and neutron transmission factors (TF and nTF) were calculated for various energy levels. Zircaloy-2 demonstrated the highest gamma-ray absorption capacity and the lowest neutron absorption capacity among the investigated alloys. The results indicate that zircaloy-2 and zircaloy-4 have nearly the same neutron transmission characteristics. Although many studies have examined the structure and physical characteristics of these materials, there has been a lack of Monte Carlo simulations to comprehensively investigate the correlation between gamma absorption, neutron absorption parameters, and mechanical qualities. This research aims to examine the ability of zirconium and its zircaloy-2 and zircaloy-4 alloys, which are critical materials used in the nuclear industry, to absorb gamma and neutron radiation over a broad spectrum of frequencies. According to the results, zircaloy-2 has the best ability to absorb secondary gamma rays and the highest level of resistance to them. Despite the minimal disparity in the nTF between the two alloys, simulation results have shown that zircaloy-2 has a higher level of neutron transmittance. These results have the potential to expedite the development of novel materials with enhanced attributes for various applications.

The effect of irradiation temperature and alloying elements on defect clustering behaviour directly from the cascade collapse in Zircaloy-2 is examined. The in-situ ioWn irradiation technique was employed to study the formation of -type dislocation loops by Kr ion irradiation at 573 K and 773 K, while the dependence of dislocation loop formationon the presence of alloying elements was investigated by comparing with the defect microstructures of pure Zr irradiated under similar conditions. The experimentally observed temperature dependence of defect clustering was further investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations near the experimental irradiation temperatures. We particularly concentrate on yield and morphology of small defect clusters formed directly from cascade collapse at very low ion doses. Smaller loop size and higher defect yield (DY) in Zircaloy-2 as compared to pure Zr suggests that the presence of the major alloying element Sn increases the number of nucleation sites for the defect clusters but suppresses the point defect recombination. MD simulations at 600 and 800 K revealed that the production of both vacancy and interstitial clusters drops significantly with an increase of irradiation temperature, which is reflected in experimentally collected DY data.