New alloy vastly improves radiation shielding

Transporting spent nuclear fuel could be made safer by a new metal alloy that absorbs radiation 60 times as effectively as the boron-steel alloy that now lines nuclear waste containers. The new alloy is made by adding the rare-earth metal gadolinium to a nickel-based alloy. Gadolinium is already used in nuclear reactor control rods. A big plus is that it can be shaped using conventional techniques. It was invented at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and Idaho National Laboratory.