Effect of Different Materials on Radiation using the Shielding Material - Essay Example

Effect of Different Materials on Radiation using the Shielding Material Introduction: Radiation is the energy emitted from any source which can cause ionization upon interaction with any matter to remove the electrons from an atom. Radiation is used by health care industry for many purposes like UV rays for disinfection, x-rays for imaging etc. Every time radiation is used by any instrument, the intensity and time of exposure to the particular type of radiation has to be determined to make sure to reduce the ill effects of over dosage of radiation. Hence the health care related professionals and staff should be aware of monitoring techniques, permissible levels of radiations and impact of radiations in the system before they use it. The Geiger-Mueller counter is used to detect radiation levels. It can be used for, and radiation. Different GM tubes are used for different types of radiation. The GM tube will be filled with noble gas Argon and around 400 volts applied to the thin wire. The particle hits the wire whenever it enters the tube causing electron removal from the noble gas and that electron will get attracted to the central wire and also cause removal of electrons from other noble gas atoms. Hence every atom ionized is detected by the wire creating a pulse which is amplified and counted. Stream of radiations from their parent source before reaching the recording surface in this experiment may undergo varied circumstances. Hence, decrease their speeds or how extent of absorption based on the receiving surface’s smoothness or roughness. Distance is also among the determining factor of the radiated stream intensity whereby it tends to decrease with the separation between the source and the receiving surface. Consequently, this implies big separations or distance margins yield to weak intensities compared to those, which are very close. Hence, lead to experimental errors especially if there is no keen observation meant to ensure heightened level of consistency. In addition, different materials emit varying intensities of their respective radiations, which also differ in terms of emissions once recorded. Figure 1: The radiation from the source: Am241 enters the GM tube counter where it gets ionized and pulse sound amplified and read by amplifier. Objective: This experiment’s aim was to determine the effect of radiation on different shielding materials by measuring their respective radiation intensities. Materials: Geiger-Mueller counter Instrument One Tab of Cesium 137 (Cs) 137 One Tab of Strontium 90 (Sr) 90 Caliper Cylinder probe Black crucible – unknown Radiation Material Aluminum square plate 2”x2” thickness- 1.62 mm (h) Wood 2”x10” board thickness – 5.9mm (h) Method: Experiment was set up before the experiment commenced. Then the caliper was used to measure the thickness of the aluminum plate, which was 2”x2” and the piece of the wood (2”x10”) Wood was marked on one side for the purpose of being used in the experiment whereby it would incompatible if it was otherwise calibrated. Then Geiger-Muller counter using the first to be turned on to the first switch with the intention of ascertaining the level of its battery. This is because the experiment can only start if the battery can adequately and without any delay supports the equipments core operations, which are essential in this study. Figure 2: Black crucible was then placed on the table before putting a cylinder probe directly on to the crucible. The amount of unknown substance will be detected and the results tabulated by the Geiger-Mueller counter The Aluminum plate was placed on the top of crucible to shield the unknown substance then connecting cylinder probe to GM counter then probe to an aluminum plate to record the results. Radiation pulse was also recorded and tabulated by use of GM counter in the similar way using wood as the shielding material. Afterwards, above steps were exactly repeated but using tabs of Cesium 137 and strontium 90. The results are recorded at every point by the GM counter. Each time tab was shielded with aluminum and measurements are recorded separately. Tabulation of results in this case was in table form. Results: Table 1 Geiger-Mueller counter Without shielding (Ao) Shielding with Aluminum (A1) Shielding with wood (A2) Unknown 1.6 x 1 = 1.6 Mr/hr 0.5 x 0.1= 0.05 Mr/hr 0.6 x 0.1 = 0.06 Mr/hr Cs 137 0.4 x 10= 4.0 Mr/hr 0.2 x 1.0 = 0.2 Mr/hr 0.1 x 0.1 = 0.01 Mr/hr Sr 90 0.45 x 10 = 4.5 Mr/hr 0.5 x 1 = 0.5 Mr/hr 0.4 x 1 = 0.4 Mr/hr formula used is H ½=  Table 2 Half-Value Layer Aluminum plate Wood board Unknown 0.3195 mm 1.243mm Cs 137 0.2100mm 0.6814mm Sr 90 0.2461mm 1.686mm Conclusion: There are numerous factors that lead to variation of results read and recorded by Geiger-Muller counter because it detects only small increments of radioactivity radiations. For instance, distance of the radiation source and the probe can play a major role in the variation. This is because once a radiation is emitted from its source before reaching the targeted surface usually encounters varied collisions in the air, hence reducing its speed. Consequently, this implies may end up giving altered results that deviate from the exact values by big margins compared to the incidences when there was keen control of the separating distance. Other factors include background radiation because the other source of material may emit some or other kind of energy, hence interfering with the incoming stream of radiation such that the end results does not come any closer to the expected data. Therefore, it is essential before the experiment one at least ascertain the extent of the background materials’ emission if possible by checking already calculated values. In addition, the nature of the shielding substance for instance, its roughness or smoothness degree can affect the end results whereby both surface may not have exactly the same results or with those anticipated. Mainly, besides other humanly errors, these factors somehow contribute to the alterations of results though with keen observation one can adequately minimize their effects especially the separating distance (Kharisov, Kharissova & Mendez 456). Work Cited Kharisov, Boris Ildusovich., Kharissova, Oxana, Vasilievna & Mendez, Ubaldo, Ortiz. Radiation Synthesis of Materials and Compounds. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, 2013. Print. Read More