Tungsten Alloy Gamma Ray Shielding

Gamma ray, also denoted as the lower-case Greek letter γ, is extremely high-frequency electromagnetic radiation that consists of high-energy photons. It is produced from a process called gamma decay in which an atomic nucleus decays from a high energy state to a lower energy state. Gamma rays typically have frequencies above 10 exahertz, and thus have energies above 100 keV and wavelengths less than 10 picometers, which is less than the diameter of an atom. However, this is not a strict definition, but rather only a rule-of-thumb description for natural processes. Electromagnetic radiation from radioactive decay of atomic nuclei is referred to as "gamma rays" no matter its energy, so that there is no lower limit to gamma energy derived from radioactive decay. This radiation commonly has energy of a few hundred keV, and almost always less than 10 MeV.

Gamma-ray has wavelengths shorter than X-ray, so it has more strong penetrating power than X-ray. In addition, the high-energy gamma ray is an ionizing radiation, which can cause harm to humans. When the body is subjected to 200 to 600rem doses of γ-ray radiation, hematopoietic organs of the body (such as bone marrow) will be damaged, and the rays can cause the loss of white blood cells, bleeding, hair loss, and the probability of death within two months ranges from 0 to 80%; when the radiation doses are in the scope of the 600-1000rem, the probability of death within two months ranges from 80-100%; when the scope of radiation doses changes to 1000-1500rem, the human gastrointestinal system will be destroyed, accompanying some symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, endocrine disorders, and the probability of dying within two weeks almost 100%; when the radiation doses up to 5,000rem or more, can cause central nervous system damage, spasm, tremor, disorders, narcolepsy, and the probability of death within two days is 100%.

Tungsten alloy gamma ray shielding has strong ability of gamma-ray linear attenuation, so it is an ideal γ-ray shielding material. Compared with conventional shielding materials, tungsten alloy shielding reflects good value. Lead was early used as shielding material, but in the use process discovered, its radiation shielding performance is not high enough, and it can also cause serious pollution to the environment. While under the conditions of the same thickness, the radiation shielding capability of tungsten alloy shielding is twice than the lead shielding.  Moreover, tungsten alloy shielding does not produce harmful substances, so do not worry that it will cause harm to human health.