Author(s)

Samir Ushah El-Kameesy¹, Wagdy Ahmed Kansouh², Elsayed Salama^1,3*, Mabrouk Kamel El-Mansy⁴, Sara Ahmed El-Khateeb¹, Riad Mostafa Megahid²

¹Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
²Department of Reactor Physics, Division of Atomic Reactors, Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt.
³Basic Science Department, Faculty of Engineering, British University in Egypt (BUE), El Sherouk City, Egypt.
⁴Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Benha, Benha, Egypt.

A new composite of silicone rubber and boric acid was developed to be used as a personal wearing for protection from nuclear radiation. The capability of this material for absorbing thermal neutrons of different intensities followed by a detonation of nuclear weapon has been investigated. This investigation was performed by using californium-252 neutron source of like fission spectrum. The thermal neutron flux was measured behind different thicknesses of the developed material using a BF₃ detector. Two positions of measurements were performed; at position near the detonation where the intensity of thermal neutron flux is low and at position far from the detonation where the intensity of thermal neutron is high. For both cases, the contribution of total thermal, initial incident and new produced thermal neutron fluxes are measured. The obtained results indicated that, addition of boron with concentration of about 17% to the silicon rubber tends to decrease the flux by more than 70%.

Neutron Shielding, Nuclear Weapon, Fission Bomb, Thermal Neutrons, Californium Source

El-Kameesy, S.U., Kansouh, W.A., Salama, E., El-Mansy, M.K., El-Khateeb, S.A. and Megahid, R.M. (2017) A Developed Material as a Nuclear Radiation Shield for Personal Wearing. Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics, 5, 596-605. doi: 10.4236/jamp.2017.53051.