No. 326: A protective suit capable of blocking nuclear radiation nearly 30% (October 13, 2011)

A protective suit that blocks nuclear radiation nearly 30% has been developed jointly by Toho Kinzoku that is a metal manufacturer and Gunze that is an apparel company. Toho Kinzoku applied their technology of the tungsten lines for bulb filaments, while Gunze applied their technology of underwear production. They used the texture wove by tungsten that has the blocking effect and elaborated the processing method to increase the freedom of the wearer. The suit is made up of a jumpsuit to cover the whole body and a vest. It weighs 16 kg totally, and is reusable. They will start to market the set to electric power companies and local governments for about five million yen within the year.

The jumpsuit is made of 12 layers of a special texture wove by a tungsten line of 35 micrometers, and the vest is made of four tungsten sheets of 0.1 mm thick to hold down the exposure of internal organs to radiation. These two measures together with the elaborated processing method made it possible to block radiation 10% at the minimum and 26% at the maximum. The protective suits currently widespread on the market are used mainly to avoid the adherence of radioactive powers on the suit. The newly developed suit that can block the transmission of radiation can rarely be found in the world. Theoretically, the blocking rate increases as the number of texture increases, but the block suit grows too heavy to give enough freedom to the wearer.