Radiation Shielding

By Author: Roger Bowne
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

Radiation to some extent is tolerable to human body. Radiations from daily devices like mobile do not create any problems in our body. When it comes to radiations like X-Ray, Gamma Ray and Nuclear radiation, they cause cancer and other health hazards in human body. Radiation shielding has always been a problem in human history. There were no standards for radiation shielding until 1913. Only then were there was professional efforts towards radiation shielding. By 1925 instruments capable of shielding were produced. With our advanced technology we are able to shield radiation.

Radiation Shielding could be achieved using 3 materials concrete, Tungsten and Lead. Concrete is used for shielding buildings. But the walls had to be very thick and it could not be used for instruments used in medical industry. Tungsten has excellent radiation shielding properties but it costs $11 per 100g while lead costs $0.02 per 100g. Lead is dense metal and has good radiation shielding properties. Lead is used more than any other material in radiation shielding and source shielding.

X-Ray shielding: ...
... X-rays are an important part of medical technology and are indispensable tool for monitoring and diagnosing medical conditions. We use lead to produce X-Ray shielded products ranging from lead syringe shielding, shipping containers, laboratory accessories, lead sheet, lead bricks etc. X-Ray shielding can be done using lead sheet of 2 mm thickness. Mobile X-ray barrier can be mounted on wheels and moved around easily. This is used extensively in medical industry. Patient is exposed to controlled intensity X-ray for some time while the doctor stays behind a curtain. This safety measure is taken as doctor will do the producer on many patients. Regular exposure to X-Ray is dangerous to health. Lead containers are available now a days for shielding instruments form x-rays. Every thing in X-Ray room is X-Ray shielded. Radiation shielding for syringe is available in the market.

The process used to protect instruments form radiation is lead casting and lead coating. Lead casting is used to produce products like lead dustbin, lead containers, lead bricks, lead sheets, source shielding containers etc.

Radiation Shielding : Shielding for radiation source is very important as the source will contaminate the environment. We do not have the technology yet go dispose radio active nuclear waste which is produced by radio active materials. Radioactive materials are used in many fields. This radio active waste is stored in lead containers until we find a way to safely dispose them. Wide range of radio active shielded products are available in the market like lead syringe shields, source shields, lead vile shields etc.
Custom made lead products discussed above can be found in Medi-Ray. Medi-RayTM, Incorporated is totally unique in the market. From its inception over thirty-five years ago, Medi-RayTM has been the world's foremost manufacturer of shielding products for nuclear medicine. For many firms, that would be enough but not for Medi-Ray. Our goal is the relentless pursuit of innovation, and we are proud to be the recognized leader in lead metal technology and radiation shielding. We realized that only a multi-disciplinary approach would provide a complete solution to the numerous problems of high costs and other related operational factors that faced many of the fields that required precision lead metal and alloy technologies.