Assessment of the mass attenuation coefficients of granite, basalt, andesite and tuff stones with the Geant4 model of a high-purity germanium detector

In this work, the radiation shielding properties of various natural stones, such as granite, basalt, andesite and tuff, were determined by using Monte-Carlo simulations performed with the Geant4 model of a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. Mass attenuation coefficients were calculated for γ-ray energies of 80.9, 140.5, 356.5, 661.6, 1173.2 and 1332.5 keV and for the sample thicknesses between 1 and 7 cm. The results of this study indicate that the stone samples have lower mass attenuation values varying in the range from - 28.8 % to - 3.7 % compared to lead. Among the measured stone samples, the mass attenuation values of tuff stone are closest to lead (above 661.6 keV).