Standard Radiation shielding products.
Today there are many applications that require radiation shielding to protect workers and members of the public from electromagnetic radiation in the high frequency range, radiation also known as x-ray radiation or gamma ray radiation.
Among these applications are:
- X-ray shielding in the medical and dental field
- Lead shielding for personal protection
- Nuclear shielding in the power generation industry
- Nuclear shielding for research in industry and university
- Radiation shielding for the military
- X-ray shielding to protect workers at security x-ray machines
This article is the first of three that describe Nuclead’s capabilities as a manufacturer and distributor of radiation shielding products.
While any material can be used in theory for radiation shielding, from a practical perspective in terms of cost, size and manufacturability lead metal continues to be the best choice in most cases. The radiation shielding effect is due to the high atomic weight of lead and the corresponding heavy nuclei contained within.
Lead can be used as radiation shielding in many forms, ranging from lead sheets of varying thicknesses to lead bricks to lead powder.Nuclead Inc. has extensive experience in all of these lead shielding applications and the expertise needed to manufacture all the required lead shield products no matter what the industry.
Nuclead can supply lead shielding from stock in various forms or can manufacture complex sub assemblies that include lead sheet, machined lead and lead welding to customer blueprints.
Nuclead’s in stock lead shielding products.
Lead sheets – the effective radiation shielding produced by lead sheets is dependent on the intensity of the radiation and the thickness of the lead shield. Depending on the application several tenths to a few inches of lead may be needed. At 125kV of x-ray radiation approximately 1/10 of an inch of lead sheet would be required at 900kv 3 inches of lead shielding would be required.
Nuclead carries a large inventory of x-ray grade lead sheets, ranging in thickness from a 1/64” to 3” and ranging in size from up to 96 inches wide. Nuclead is an experienced provider of sheet lead for radiation shielding applications such as X-ray room shielding, medical imaging rooms and MRI shielding.
Many tons of radiation shielding in the form of lead sheets have been shipped. Examples include lead shielding supplied to a government cancer research facility, custom lead shielding for the US Department of Veterans affairs and lead shielding from the University of California.
Lead foil – a form of sheet lead that can be easily cut and formed into any shape and can therefore be placed around any area that needs radiation shielding.
Thicknesses of lead foil up to 0.3 inches, and as thin as 0.002 inches are available. Lead foil is shipped rolled on heavy fiber cores to provide protection. Also, the lead foil can be laminated using pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) to attaché the lead to vinyl or other material as specified by the customer.
Experience includes shipping lead foil to an offshore drilling platform run by a major oil company.
Lead bricks – For higher radiation shielding requirements lead bricks are the preferred solution. Typically, when used as a radiation shield or for high energy X-ray shielding, interlocking lead bricks are used. The tongue and groove design of the interlocking lead bricks provides for maximum radiation shield integrity.
The most common size of lead bricks is 2” thick, 4” high and 8” long. The lead bricks can be also be 12”long and between 1” and 3” thick. Lead bricks can be machined into any configuration specified.
An example is high tolerance custom machined lead bricks supplied to the US department of energy.
Lead powder – Lead Powder is used within plastic sheets that are used in certain protective clothing items such as lead aprons.
Lead sheetrock – Radiation shielding for X-ray rooms and other radiation screened rooms are usually in the form of lead sheetrock or lead plywood. Lead sheetrock being used for lower levels of radiation shielding requirements
Nuclead supplies lead sheetrock, which are drywall panels pressure laminated to continuous lead sheets, in thicknesses of up to ¾” thick in sheets that are 4’ wide and up to 10’ long. Lead plywood sometimes has the lead sheet incorporated into the laminated layers.
The seams between the sheets are sealed with a 2” wide strip of lead seam filler to ensure a continuous radiation shield. The lead seam filler is also available from Nuclead.
Lead glass – is used to provide protected viewing windows into areas such as X-ray rooms and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants, where both radiation shielding and a clear view are necessary for the diagnostic or manufacturing activities involved. Lead Oxide is added to the lead glass during manufacture to create the equivalent of several millimeters of lead shielding.
Nuclead provides LX-57B X-ray shielding lead glass, consisting of lead barium glass of high optical grade that contains over 60% of heavy metal oxide. The Radiation shielding produced can be the equivalent to over 3mm of lead shielding. The glass is available in sizes up to 48”X96”
Nuclead recently shipped a large order for lead glass to a major university.
Nuclead also offers lead acrylic made from an acrylic copolymer resin into which lead is chemically introduced.
Lead protective clothing – In an environment where there is a need for radiation shielding it is necessary to provide workers and visitors with personal protective clothing.
All Nuclead’s protective clothing conforms to requirements specified by the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). Lead shielding is provided in many forms including lead aprons, lead thyroid shields, lead lined gloves, eyewear containing leaded glass, lead sleeves and moveable lead shields.
Nuclead and its predecessors have radiation shielding experience that dates back over 100 years. Nuclead ships 1000 of lead shielding products every year from its large warehouse inventory.
Conclusion
Nuclead’s experience and expertise in radiation shielding products is unmatched in the USA. Whatever a customer’s lead shielding need from medical to nuclear to security, Nuclead can offer the right solution.
The next two articles in this series will discuss Nuclead’s extensive warehouse stock of radiation shielding products and the third article will be about custom radiation shielding capabilities.