Radiation Shielding [Hardcover]

Kenneth Shultis (Author), Richard E. Faw (Author), J. Kenneth Shultis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131256912 | ISBN-13: 978-0131256910 | Publication Date: March 1996

3 Mile Island. Chernobyl. Nuclear meltdowns that can spell disaster for decades to come. For a number of professions including nuclear engineering, environmental engineering, radiology, and space physics, the most hazardous aspect of the job is the proper handling of radioactive material and the assessment of radiation doses. This book provides an understanding of the principles and techniques used in modern radiation shield design and analysis.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This edition presents in a more unified fashion the principles and techniques of performing radiation shielding calculations. It attemps to present as much current data and information as possible. The emphasis is on the principles behind many techniques used in various aspects of shield analysis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 533 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131256912
• ISBN-13: 978-0131256910
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,196,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars GOOD REFERENCE WORK; BAD BOOK TO LEARN FROM TODAY, September 11, 2008

By 

TJ VAN ROOYEN "Johann van Rooyen" (South Africa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radiation Shielding (Hardcover)

Alas, alas -- there are as yet no good, useful, practical textbooks from which to learn the discipline of radiation shielding.

This book by Shultis & Faw is a valuable reference work, but not a practical textbook to teach a course on radiation shielding from. I have taught Radiation Shielding at University level for almost 2 decades, and this textbook is simply not a goopd teaching tool.

Like most other books on radiation transport & shielding, this book derives, with great travail of soul, a rather bewildering succession of hundreds upon hundreds of usually approximate, analytical formulations to enable "approximate calculations by hand" of radiation particle behaviour. In end-of-chapter exercises, students are then required to apply these approximate, inaccurate analytical expressions to solve an equally bewildering variety of problems with approximate manual calculations, in order to gain experience in the subject.

The real-life situation in the 21st century, is that shielding analysts use powerful codes running on fast digital computers to solve radiation transport and shielding problems. The practicing shielding analyst therefore requires the following knowledge and skills:

1) A broad, encyclopedic mastery of the physics concepts that govern ionising radiation emission, radiation transport and radiation dosimetry;
2) The ability to model radiation transport problems using a range of state-of-the-art radiation transport codes, e.g. the SCALE system and MCNP.

Because powerful and accurate radiation transport codes are available, it is not particularly meaningful to teach students a series of rather useless approximate analytical techniques. These techniques were valuable in the period 1940 to 1970, but have become obsolete and therefore rather irrelevant.

The preferred methodology to be followed in any modern course on Radiation Transport & Shielding is therefore:
1) Guide the student to understand and become highly skilled in the foundational concepts of the transport of ionising radiation. A conceptual, encyclopedic mastery of the subject is required to guide the practicing shielding analyst.
2) Present a clear formulation of the physics principles underlying radiation transport and the characteristic shielding abilities of important materials;
3) Give the student a feeling of how radiation transport codes work, by carrying out some steps of numerical solution techniques by manual computations;
4) Expose students to radiation transport codes used in the nuclear & radiation industry, notably SCALE and MCNP.
5) Teach and guide the student to begin building up a "toolbox" of calculational techniques, using e.g. MathCAD, MatLAB, Mathematica, Fortran code, etc. Such a calculational "toolbox" is one mark of a professional scientist. The moment a topic is mastered, the calculations involved in the analysis should be coded in e.g. MathCAD and be added to the scientists' calculational "toolbox."

(Physicists and applied mathematicians who develop radiation transport codes, of course, do need to master the numerical techniques required to solve radiation transport problems, in detail. Special textbooks deal with these topics.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference book or classroom tool, August 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Radiation Shielding (Hardcover)

Having had the authors as professors while getting my nuclear engineering degree, I can assure you that these are two professionals that know what they are talking about. The book is an excellent reference for anyone involved in radiation shielding. If you are teaching a class related to this, you must have this book. The book presents a very thorough technical discussion of all aspects regarding radiation shielding.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good, state of the art, March 18, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Radiation Shielding (Hardcover)

This book provides an excellent overview of modern radiation shielding analysis. It includes a very solid introduction to concepts of ionizing radiation and radiation shielding. All references are were very much up-to-date and a lot of attention is being paid to advanced techniques. The book is a must for anyone who is or will be involved in serious radiation shielding engineering.