Shielding of beta radiation

Principle

As the energy values of the beta particles are distributed continuously over a region of from 0 to a maximum value, the dependence between radiation intensity and material thickness can only be approximately described by the exponential law which is valid for mono-energetic radiation.

This is:
where ? is the reduction coefficient and x the thickness of the material.

The term half-value thickness x1/2 is used for practical handling of ionizing radiation. This value can be read off directly from the graph of count rate against material thickness. On comparing the values read from the graphs for the various materials, thoughts can be made on the selection of the most favourable shielding material.

Task

To determine which thickness various materials must have to reduce the intensity of beta radiation by one half.

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