Dose Coefficients for Use in Rapid Dose Estimation in Industrial Radiography Accidents

Abstract

When accidents by industrial radiography sources occur, it is necessary to accurately and quickly estimate radiation doses for the effective treatment of those individuals with acute radiation syndrome (ARS). In the present study, a comprehensive set of absorbed dose coefficients (DCs) was obtained by performing Monte Carlo simulations using computational human phantoms of different body sizes. These DCs provide an “initial and rapid” dose estimation for individuals accidentally exposed to industrial radiography sources. The adult mesh-type ICRP reference computational phantoms (MRCPs) and the adult 10th and 90th percentile computational phantoms, constructed by deforming the MRCPs, were implemented in the Geant4 Monte Carlo code. We subsequently simulated the most commonly used industrial radiography sources (i.e., 192Ir and 60Co) placed in 72 different locations near the human body. It was found that body size significantly influences the DCs, especially when the source is closer than 1 m to the human body, which is a case frequently encountered during industrial radiography accidents. Acknowledging the significance of these results, the ICRP is planning to include the full set of the calculated DCs from this study in a forthcoming ICRP Publication, which is being prepared by the ICRP Committee 2 Task Group 103 “Mesh-type Reference Computational Phantoms.”