Skip Navigation


Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on March 8, 2005
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2005 113(4):428-437; doi:10.1093/rpd/nch473
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
113/4/428    most recent
nch473v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Melhus, C. S.
Right arrow Articles by Massé, F. X.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Melhus, C. S.
Right arrow Articles by Massé, F. X.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Technical Note

Shielding evaluation of a medical linear accelerator vault in preparation for installing a high-dose rate 252Cf remote afterloader

C. S. Melhus*, M. J. Rivard, J. KurKomelis, C. B. Liddle and F. X. Massé

Department of Radiation Oncology, Tufts University of Medicine, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Box 246, 750 Washington Street, Boston, MA, USA

* Corresponding author: cmelhus{at}tufts-nemc.org

Received October 13, 2004, amended February 4, 2005, accepted February 13, 2005

In support of the effort to begin high-dose rate 252Cf brachytherapy treatments at Tufts-New England Medical Center, the shielding capabilities of a clinical accelerator vault against the neutron and photon emissions from a 1.124 mg 252Cf source were examined. Outside the clinical accelerator vault, the fast neutron dose equivalent rate was below the lower limit of detection of a CR-39 etched track detector and below 0.14 ± 0.02 µSv h–1 with a proportional counter, which is consistent, within the uncertainties, with natural background. The photon dose equivalent rate was also measured to be below background levels (0.1 µSv h–1) using an ionisation chamber and an optically stimulated luminescence dosemeter. A Monte Carlo simulation of neutron transport through the accelerator vault was performed to validate measured values and determine the thermal-energy to low-energy neutron component. Monte Carlo results showed that the dose equivalent rate from fast neutrons was reduced by a factor of 100,000 after attenuation through the vault wall, and the thermal-energy neutron dose equivalent rate would be an additional factor of 1000 below that of the fast neutrons. Based on these findings, the shielding installed in this facility is sufficient for the use of at least 5.0 mg of 252Cf.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.