• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.61-64
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• 2014

Radioactive materials are in use and have many applications from the generation of electricity to the purposes of research, industry and medicine such as diagnosis and therapy. In the course of their use some of radioactive substances may be discharged into the environment from facilities using the unsealed radioactive materials, which are main artificial sources occurring the public exposure. Discharges are in the form of gases, particles or liquids. This paper provides procedures to estimate the level of the public exposure based on the conservative assumptions and simple calculations in the facility using unsealed liquid sources. They consist of two processes; (1) to calculate maximum concentration of gaseous effluents discharged through the exhaust pipe and average concentration of liquid effluents discharged through the drain of the storage tank, (2) to compare each of them to numerical guidances for the discharges of radioactive gaseous and liquid effluents mentioned in the related notification. For this purpose followings are assumed properly; daily usage, form and dispersion rate of radionuclides, daily amount of radioactive liquid waste and exhaust and drainage equipment. The procedures are readily applicable to evaluate environmental effects by planned effluent discharges from facilities using the unsealed radioactive materials. In addition they may be utilized to obtain practical requirements for radiation safety control necessary for the reductions of the public exposure.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.164-171
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• 2022

The number of facilities using radiation generators increases and related regulations are strengthened, the establishment of a shielding management and evaluation technology has become important. The characteristics of the radiation generator used in previous report differ from those of currently available high-frequency radiation generators. This study aimed to manufacture lead, iron, and concrete shielding materials for the re-verification of half-value layers, tenth-value layers, and attenuation curve. For a comparison of attenuation ratio, iron, lead, and concrete shields were manufactured in this study. The initial dose was measured without shielding materials, and doses measured under different types and thicknesses of shielding material were compared with the initial dose to calculate the transmission rate on 50-300 kVp X-ray. All the three shielding materials showed a tendency to require greater shielding thickness for higher energy. The attenuation graph showed an exponential shape as the thickness decreased and a straight line as the thickness increased. The difference between the measurement results and the previous study, except in extrapolated parts, may be due to the differences in the radiation generation characteristics between the generators used in the two studies. The attenuated graph measured in this study better reflects the characteristics of current radiation generators, which would be more effective for shield designing.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.449-457
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• 2023

Shielding for reducing exposure dose can make the diagnosis limited. The purpose of this study is to increase the efficiency of radiation protection and minimize the loss of image information by producing the shielding made of the water and the contrast medium which has different proportion and finding out the ideal proportion of them. Each shielding materials were made of water and water-soluble iodine contrast medium with the different proportion. The attenuation rate of absorbed dose was evaluated by the shielding materials in the plastic contents for measuring the efficiency of the radiation protection. As a result, the higher ratio of the contrast medium, the more efficient it is for radiation attenuation. The anatomical structure was observed most properly in case of the solution with 20 ml of the contrast medium and most difficultly in case of more than 60 ml of the contrast medium. In case of the signal intensity between skeleton and gas, the difference of average value had a significant as p < 0.001. Shielding with contrast medium attenuates less than the conventional shielding but in the examination for the sensitive part to radiation, it can be used to minimize the loss of the image information and reduce the exposure dose.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.149-155
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• 2019

Background: Magnetic resonance (MR) image guided radiation therapy system, enables real time MR guided radiotherapy (RT) without additional radiation exposure to patients during treatment. However, MR image lacks electron density information required for dose calculation. Image fusion algorithm with deformable registration between MR and computed tomography (CT) was developed to solve this issue. However, delivered dose may be different due to volumetric changes during image registration process. In this respect, synthetic CT generated from the MR image would provide more accurate information required for the real time RT. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 1,209 MR images from 16 patients who underwent MR guided RT. Structures were divided into five tissue types, air, lung, fat, soft tissue and bone, according to the Hounsfield unit of deformed CT. Using the deep learning model (U-NET model), synthetic CT images were generated from the MR images acquired during RT. This synthetic CT images were compared to deformed CT generated using the deformable registration. Pixel-to-pixel match was conducted to compare the synthetic and deformed CT images. Results and Discussion: In two test image sets, average pixel match rate per section was more than 70% (67.9 to 80.3% and 60.1 to 79%; synthetic CT pixel/deformed planning CT pixel) and the average pixel match rate in the entire patient image set was 69.8%. Conclusion: The synthetic CT generated from the MR images were comparable to deformed CT, suggesting possible use for real time RT. Deep learning model may further improve match rate of synthetic CT with larger MR imaging data.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.163-170
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• 2020

Background: Gut microflora contributes to the nutritional metabolism of the host and to strengthen its immune system. However, if the intestinal barrier function of the living body is destroyed by radiation exposure, the intestinal bacteria harm the health of the host and cause sepsis. Therefore, this study aims to trace short-term radiation-induced changes in the mouse gut microflora-dominant bacterial genus, and analyze the degree of intestinal epithelial damage. Materials and Methods: Mice were irradiated with 0, 2, 4, 8 Gy X-rays, and the gut microflora and intestinal epithelial changes were analyzed 72 hours later. Five representative genera of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes were analyzed in fecal samples, and the intestine was pathologically analyzed by Hematoxylin-Eosin and Alcian blue staining. In addition, DNA fragmentation was evaluated by the TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Results and Discussion: The small intestine showed shortened villi and reduced number of goblet cells upon 8 Gy irradiation. The large intestine epithelium showed no significant morphological changes, but the number of goblet cells were reduced in a radiation dose-dependent manner. Moreover, the small intestinal epithelium of 8 Gy-irradiated mice showed significant DNA damaged, whereas the large intestine epithelium was damaged in a dose-dependent manner. Overall, the large intestine epithelium showed less recovery potential upon radiation exposure than the small intestinal epithelium. Analysis of the intestinal flora revealed fluctuations in lactic acid bacteria excretion after irradiation regardless of the morphological changes of intestinal epithelium. Altogether, it became clear that radiation exposure could cause an immediate change of their excretion. Conclusion: This study revealed changes in the intestinal epithelium and intestinal microbiota that may pave the way for the identification of novel biomarkers of radiation-induced gastrointestinal disorders and develop new therapeutic strategies to treat patients with acute radiation syndrome.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2024

Background: The gamma emission tomography (GET) device has been reported a reliable technique to inspect partial defects within spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of pin-by-pin level. However, the existing GET devices have low accuracy owing to the high attenuation and scatter probability for SNF inspection condition. The purpose of this study is to design and optimize a Yonsei single-photon emission computed tomography version 2 (YSECT.v.2) for fast inspection of SNF in water storage by acquisition of high-quality tomographic images. Materials and Methods: Using Geant4 (Geant4 Collaboration) and DETECT-2000 (Glenn F. Knoll et al.) Monte Carlo simulation, the geometrical structure of the proposed device was determined and its performance was evaluated for the ¹³⁷Cs source in water. In a Geant4-based assessment, proposed device was compared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-authenticated device for the quality of tomographic images obtained for 12 fuel sources in a 14 × 14 Westinghouse-type fuel assembly. Results and Discussion: According to the results, the length, slit width, and septal width of the collimator were determined to be 65, 2.1, and 1.5 mm, respectively, and the material and length of the trapezoidal-shaped scintillator were determined to be gadolinium aluminum gallium garnet and 45 mm, respectively. Based on the results of performance comparison between the YSECT.v.2 and IAEA's device, the proposed device showed 200 times higher performance in gamma-detection sensitivity and similar source discrimination probability. Conclusion: In this study, we optimally designed the GET device for improving the SNF inspection accuracy and evaluated its performance. Our results show that the YSECT.v.2 device could be employed for SNF inspection.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2022

Background: There are several proton therapy facilities in operation or planned in Taiwan, and these facilities are anticipated to not only treat cancer but also provide beam services to the industry or academia. The simplified approach based on the Monte Carlo-based data sets (source terms and attenuation lengths) with the point-source line-of-sight approximation is friendly in the design stage of the proton therapy facilities because it is intuitive and easy to use. The purpose of this study is to expand the Monte Carlo-based data sets to allow the simplified approach to cover the application of proton beams more widely. Materials and Methods: In this work, the MCNP6 Monte Carlo code was used in three simulations to achieve the purpose, including the neutron yield calculation, Monte Carlo-based data sets generation, and dose assessment in simple cases to demonstrate the effectiveness of the generated data sets. Results and Discussion: The consistent comparison of the simplified approach and Monte Carlo simulation results show the effectiveness and advantage of applying the data set to a quick shielding design and conservative dose assessment for proton therapy facilities. Conclusion: This study has expanded the existing Monte Carlo-based data set to allow the simplified approach method to be used for dose assessment or shielding design for beam services in proton therapy facilities. It should be noted that the default model of the MCNP6 is no longer the Bertini model but the CEM (cascade-exciton model), therefore, the results of the simplified approach will be more conservative when it was used to do the double confirmation of the final shielding design.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.359-367
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• 2016

Background: As new legislation has come into force implementing radiation safety management for the use of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM), it is necessary to establish a rapid and accurate measurement technique. Measurement of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ using conventional methods encounter the most significant difficulties for pretreatment (e.g., purification, speciation, and dilution/enrichment) or require time-consuming processes. Therefore, in this study, the applicability of ED-XRF as a non-destructive and rapid screening method was validated for raw materials and by-product samples. Materials and Methods: A series of experiments was conducted to test the applicability for rapid screening of XRF measurement to determine activity of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ based on certified reference materials (e.g., soil, rock, phosphorus rock, bauxite, zircon, and coal ash) and NORM samples commercially used in Korea. Statistical methods were used to compare the analytical results of ED-XRF to those of certified values of certified reference materials (CRM) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Results and Discussion: Results of the XRF measurement for $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ showed under 20% relative error and standard deviation. The results of the U-test were statistically significant except for the case of U in coal fly ash samples. In addition, analytical results of $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$ in the raw material and by-product samples using XRF and the analytical results of those using ICP-MS ($R^2{\geq}0.95$) were consistent with each other. Thus, the analytical results rapidly derived using ED-XRF were fairly reliable. Conclusion: Based on the validation results, it can be concluded that the ED-XRF analysis may be applied to rapid screening of radioactivities ($^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$) in NORM samples.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.75-84
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• 2018

Background: Gamma-ray spectrometry helps in radiation shielding problems and different applications of radioisotopes. Experimental arrangements including broad beam geometries are widely used. The aim is to investigate and evaluate the ${\gamma}-ray$ spectra via attenuation by environmental materials. Materials and Methods: The photo peak to nominated parts in the ${\gamma}-ray$ spectra and the attenuation coefficients ${\mu}_b/{\rho}$ from broad beam geometries are measured for the materials water, soil, sand and cement at the energies 0.662, 1.25, and 1.332 MeV with a $3{^{\prime}^{\prime}}{\times}3{^{\prime}^{\prime}}$ NaI(Tl) detector. Results and Discussion: The ${\gamma}-ray$ spectra vary according to changes in the effective atomic number $Z_{eff}$ of the attenuator, the photon energy and the solid angle. The peak to total ratios are the most sensitive parts to variations in the experimental conditions and overturn in the region 0.663 MeV to 1.332 MeV. This is indicated as inversion trend. The results are discussed in view of $Z_{eff}$ and the experimental conditions. The intensity build-up is larger at the lower energy and larger scattering angles in agreement with Klein-Nishina formula and other results. The build-up factor B is$${\sim_=}$$1 at high ${\gamma}-energies$ and small scattering angles. Conclusion: The sensitivity to material characteristics decrease gradually from peak: to total, to Compton valley, to Compton plateau ratios. Rigorous collimation is necessary at small energies. Cement, of the largest $Z_{eff}$, is characterized by the maximum broad beam mass attenuation coefficients ${\mu}_b/{\rho}$. The obtained results provide information to decide for the suitable experimental set-up based on aim of the work.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2017

Background: Ionizing radiation is known to be harmful to human health. The shielding of ionizing radiation depends on the attenuation which can be achieved by three main rules, i.e. time, distance and absorbing material. Materials and Methods: The mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation coefficient, Half Value Layer (HVL) and Tenth Value Layer (TVL) of X-rays (32 keV, 74 keV) and gamma rays (662 keV) are measured in Barium compounds. Results and Discussion: The measured values agree well with the theory. The effective atomic numbers ($Z_{eff}$) and electron density (Ne) of Barium compounds have been computed in the wide energy region 1 keV to 100 GeV using an accurate database of photon-interaction cross sections and the WinXCom program. Conclusion: The mass attenuation coefficient and linear attenuation coefficient for $BaCO_3$ is higher than the $BaCl_2$, $Ba(No_3)_2$ and BaSO4. HVL, TVL and mean free path are lower for $BaCO_3$ than the $BaCl_2$, $Ba(No_3)_2$ and $BaSO_4$. Among the studied barium compounds, $BaCO_3$ is best material for x-ray and gamma shielding.