LAUSR

Abstract Gamma-ray interaction parameters of polymers, that are generally preferred due to their light weight and high durability, have been investigated for their usefulness as dosimetric and shielding materials in medical, industrial and scientific fields of nuclear radiations. The simulations to estimate the attenuation by polymeric materials have been performed with FLUKA Monte Carlo code due to its reasonable flexibility and reliability. Radiation interaction related parameters such as mass attenuation coefficient (µm), relaxation length ( ƛ ), tenth-value layer (TVL), half-value layer (HVL), electronic cross-section (σt,el), atomic cross-section (σt,a), effective atomic number (Zeff) and effective electron density (Nel) have been reported for some useful polymeric materials like Polytetrafluoroethylene (C2F4)n, Bakelite (C9H9O)n, Polyethylene terephtalate (C10H8O4)n, Polypropylene (C3H6)n, Polysulfone (C27H22O4S)n, Polystyrene (C8H8)n, Polyethylene (C2H4)n, Natural Rubber (C5H8)n, Polymethyl methacrylate (C5H8O2)n and Polyvinylchloride (C2H3Cl)n. The investigations have been reported for the commonly used gamma sources with energies 59.5 (241Am), 80.9 (133Ba), 140.5 (99mTc), 356.5 (133Ba), 661.6 (137Cs), 834.8 (54Mn), 1173.2 (60Co) and 1332.5 (60Co) keV using the FLUKA simulation program. The results obtained by FLUKA Monte Carlo code agree well, having a relative deviation of less than 1%, with XCOM standard reference database. It was concluded from the study that FLUKA can be an alternative way to estimate various interaction parameters of polymeric materials especially when it is hard to set up an experiment. Also, among the chosen polymers Polyvinylchloride and Polytetrafluoroethylene are the best shielding polymers at lower and higher energy end in the range of 59.5 keV - 1332.5 keV respectively.