A Study of Production of Tungsten Copper Alloy by Powder Metallurgy, Applied to Radioactive Shielding of Transport Equipment for Pharmaceutical Products

摘要

Safety is of paramount importance for the storage and transportation of radiopharmaceutical products,being directly dependent on the radiation shielding material used in specific devices. The focus ofpresent work, part of a larger project, is to minimize the use of harmful materials, as lead and depleteduranium, in such devices construction. The radioactive energy reduction varies according to density ofmaterial used as shielding. Because Tungsten has a high density and, implicitly, good shieldingproperties without to be harmful, but has poor workability, researches were focused on Tungsten -copper heavy alloys. The objective of the performed research was the optimization of alloycomposition in order to achieve the best linear absorption coefficient. The studied compositions were15, 20 and 25 wt.% copper. The linear absorption coefficient was similar either for the green andsintered compacts, thus the porosity level did not have measurable effect on the radiation attenuation.