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In the present research, standard ceramic and Molybdenum (Mo) doped ceramics were fabricated to determine the shielding properties against gamma and fast neutron radiation. The ceramics were exposed to photons with 81, 276, 302, 356, 383 keV energies emitted from 3 Ci 133Ba radioactive source and the photon intensities were detected by utilizing Ultra Ge detector. With the obtained results, the gamma shielding parameters; mass attenuation coefficients (μ ρ), the mean free paths (mfp), half value layers (HVL), tenth value layers (TVL), effective atomic numbers (Z eff) and effective electron densities (N el) were obtained experimentally and compared to the theoretical outcomes computed by utilizing WinXCOM program. It was found that, S4 ceramic containing 30% Mo element has higher μ ρ and Z eff value and lower MFP, TVL and HVL values than the other ceramics. The EBF and EABF values of S4 ceramic were lower than the values of other investigated ceramics. Thus, it has been concluded that the use of Mo element in ceramic increases the gamma shielding property of the ceramics. When the ceramics were examined in terms of fast neutron shielding, no important difference was found between the ceramics. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High strength and heat resistance properties of radiation shielding materials are among the most sought properties. Due to their mechanical and thermal properties, bricks can be a good alternative for radiation protection applications. In this respect, nuclear radiation attenuation parameters of seven brick samples containing different amounts of Cobalt metal (0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 %wt) were examined in this study. Initially, SEM-EDX analysis of bricks were carried out to determine the elemental composition and structure of the bricks. Next, the bricks were exposed to gamma rays with 53.16, 79.61, 80.99, 276.39, 302.85, 356.01, 383.84 keV photon energies emitted from Barium-133 radioactive source and the transmitted photon intensities were detected by utilizing Ultra-Ge detector. Mass attenuation coefficient (MAC), effective atomic number (Z eff), Half Value Layer (HVL), Mean Free Path (MFP) and exposure buildup factors (EBF) values of bricks were determined by experimentally and EpiXS program. At 53.-383 MeV photon energy interval, it is found that the MAC values for S0–S6 brick samples range between 0.427 and 0.097 cm2/g and 1.130–0.0961 cm2/g. In addition, the neutron shielding features of the bricks under study were assessed by calculating effective removal cross section (Σ R). It is noticed that the Σ R values of the samples gradually grow from 0.057 cm−1 to 0.1392 cm−1 with increasing Co addition. It has been concluded that rising the Co addition improves the gamma and neutron shielding capacity of the brick samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]