Green Materials for Radiation Shielding: An Overview

Abstract

Green materials can be described as materials developed to minimize human beings’ harmful effects on nature and eliminate many negative situations such as waste and pollution. Green materials have numerous application areas due to their features such as being sustainable, environmentally friendly, low toxicity, lightweight, and low cost. Today, nuclear technology serves society usefully in many fields such as space technology, power generation, medicine, and the food industry. However, effective radiation shielding materials are needed to protect against the harmful effects of radiation. Conventional radiation armor materials used today consist of heavy, inflexible, and toxic materials. It is essential to replace these undesirable properties with environmentally friendly, light, flexible, and non-toxic materials. In this context, one of the usages of green materials is radiation shielding applications. This chapter aims to present an evaluation of studies under different radiation types for radiation shielding applications of green materials. It focuses on recent studies of lead-free and environmentally friendly X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron shielding materials due to their suitability for use as effective radiation shielding candidates. Additionally, it reviews the use of green materials in electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding applications.