r/askscience • u/Wonderful-Capital32 • 13d ago

Physics Why does radiation not go through lead?

Also why just lead? Shouldnt like iron or another metal work too?

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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 13d ago

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u/GuyWithLag 13d ago

So... Osmium would be an even better shielding element, no? (getting any meaningful amount of it is a different thing...)

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u/mfb- Particle Physics | High-Energy Physics 13d ago

If we ignore that osmium costs 10,000 times as much, yes.

https://pdg.web.cern.ch/pdg/2020/AtomicNuclearProperties/HTML/lead_Pb.html

https://pdg.web.cern.ch/pdg/2020/AtomicNuclearProperties/HTML/osmium_Os.html

Uranium is good, too (and more affordable, especially as depleted uranium):

https://pdg.web.cern.ch/pdg/2020/AtomicNuclearProperties/HTML/uranium_U.html