Concrete as a protective barrier for gamma rays from radium.

Several papers [1, 2, 3) 2 and Handbooks [4, 5] have been published during the past 20 years dealing with barrier req uirements for shielding against gamma radiation from radium. These publications have usually suggested lead for the barriers because a large proportion of the applications required restricted space and ready transportabi lity of the barrier and gamma-ray source. For h igh-energy X-ray installations, it is often more economical to use concrete barriers. It has been suggested that concrete might also be usefu l for shielding in gamma-ray installations if attenuation curves were available. The present paper presents this required information for radium.