Experimental investigation of photon attenuation behaviors for concretes including natural perlite mineral

Perlite mineral contains relatively high water and in general hydrated obsidian forms the perlite which is mainly an amorphous volcanic glass. Photon attenuation properties for different concrete types including natural perlite mineral and B4C have been experimentally investigated by using different radioactive point sources at 81, 276, 303, 356, 384, 662, 1173, 1275 and 1333 keV. SEM and EDAX analyses were carried out to control the crystal structure of the selected concrete types. In this work, HPGe detector based on gamma spectrometer was employed for all experiments. The results revealed that among the prepared concrete samples, the P6 concrete sample has the lowest HVL and MFP values and thus, having best ability to attenuate gamma rays in comparison to the other prepared concretes. Keywords: Radiation shielding, Attenuation coefficient, Gamma spectrometer, Perlite