Impact of WO₃ on some ionizing radiation shielding properties of the soda–lime–silica (SLS) recycling waste glasses

The goal of this study is to find out how adding WO₃ to recycled waste soda–lime–silica glass (WSLSG) changes the way it shields different types of ionizing radiation. A NaI(Tl) detector was used to perform experimental gamma-ray attenuation experiments utilizing cesium (¹³⁷Cs) and cobalt (⁶⁰Co) gamma sources through [WO₃](x) [0.2Bi₂O₃–0.3ZnO–0.2B₂O₃–0.3SLS](1-x) glass mixtures (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 mol%). Additionally, a wide range of gamma-ray energy, varied from 0.015 to 15 MeV, was theoretically investigated using the Phy-X/PSD software for evaluating gamma-ray shielding effectiveness through the investigated WSLSG composites. Some a main related gamma-ray attenuation parameters were computed. The descending order of transmission factor (TF) for specific sample thicknesses and incident gamma-ray energies is: TFW0>TFW1>TFW2>TFW3>TFW4>TFW5. Furthermore, the macroscopic removal cross section (MRCS) and fast neutron removal cross section (FNRCS) were calculated using the Phy-X/PSD and MRCScal software, respectively. The neutron activation and scattering calculator was used to determine the total macroscopic cross section (Σth) for thermal neutrons. According to the results, the W4 composite had the highest FNRCS and MRCS values, 0.108061 and 0.120370, respectively, while the W5 and W1 composites had the lowest and highest TMCS (Σ^th) values, 0.537507 and 0.543824 cm⁻¹, respectively. Additionally, SRIM Monte Carlo software was used to simulate the range (R) of certain ions across a wide energy range varied from 0.01 to 20 MeV. The ESTAR NIST program was used to compute the TSP and continuous slowing down approximation (CSDA) ranges for electron interactions across an electron energy range varied from 0.01 to 1000 MeV. The density and mean excitation energy (I) both rise when the WO₃ mol% increases.