It is emphasized the absolute need of ensuring the safety of personnel and the public when using nuclear energy. The importance of creation of effective protection against ionizing radiation is substantiated. It is shown the significance of the optimization principle being one of the basic principles of radiation safety, in designing the composition of biological protection. The requirements for the materials used for the construction of protection are given. It is substantiated the relevance of studies of the local minerals properties in order to estimate the possibility of their use as part of the biological protection of nuclear facilities (NIAE) constructed in different countries. Given are the main directions of research of the radiation protection optimization which are carried out by specialists of the "Nuclear Power Plants and RES" department of UrFU. One of these directions is the computational and experimental study and optimization of the composition of radiation protective materials which are adapted to the specific isotopic composition of radioactive contaminants in the NIAE systems. As an example, the article presents the results of computational and experimental studies of the properties of basalts from the deposits of the Republic of Egypt in order to estimate the possibility of their use in building materials for construction of protection against ionizing radiation. The origin of the studied basalt samples is described. The characteristics of basalt (the form of basalt bed, arrangement of stratums, their dimensions) of different deposits of Egypt are presented. The equipment and the technique of chemical analysis of the basalt samples are described. The results of the analysis of chemical composition and spectrometric analysis of the specific activities of natural radioactive impurities (thorium, potassium-40, radium) in basalt samples are presented. The equipment and the technique of experimental study of the basalt samples radiation protective characteristics are described. The substantiation is given for the choice of radioactive isotopes for the experimental investigation of the basalt samples. The results of mass attenuation coefficients determination for the samples of basalt and lead (as a reference material) with the help of scintillating detector NaI(Tl) are given. The results of experimental studies of linear and mass attenuation coefficients of γ-radiation of Cs-137, Co-60 and Eu-152 isotopes by basalt samples are presented. The experimental data are compared with the calculated ones obtained with XCOM program.