What is required to shield alpha particles?

Shielding alpha and beta particles is part of radiation safety, which is followed very seriously in nuclear power plants, hospitals, laboratories where particle accelerators are used, and in many more situations. Alpha particles are much easier to block than beta particles. Alpha particles are positively charged helium nuclei, and beta particles are negatively charged electrons. Finding materials to block alpha and beta particles requires some serious consideration because of how dangerous radiation exposure is. Density is very important when is comes to blocking these particles. The cool thing about alpha particles, though, is how easily they can be blocked. You would think that blocking a particle would take some seriously thick metal or something, but you could actually use paper, or even plastic to block these particles!

Hopefully this was helpful to you - feel free to comment if you have any other questions!