• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the diverse characteristics of a novel commercial bolus, CLEANBOLUS-WHITE (CBW), to ascertain its suitability for clinical application. Methods: The evaluation of CBW encompassed both physical and biological assessments. Physical parameters such as mass density and shore hardness were measured alongside analyses of element composition. Biological evaluations included assessments for skin irritation and cytotoxicity. Dosimetric properties were examined by calculating surface dose and beam quality using a treatment planning system (TPS). Additionally, doses were measured at maximum and reference depths, and the results were compared with those obtained using a solid water phantom. The effect of air gap on dose measurement was also investigated by comparing measured doses on the RANDO phantom, under the bolus, with doses calculated from the TPS. Results: Biological evaluation confirmed that CBW is non-cytotoxic, nonirritant, and non-sensitizing. The bolus exhibited a mass density of 1.02 g/cm³ and 14 shore 00. Dosimetric evaluations revealed that using the 0.5 cm CBW resulted in less than a 1% difference compared to using the solid water phantom. Furthermore, beam quality calculations in the TPS indicated increased surface dose with the bolus. The air gap effect on dose measurement was deemed negligible, with a difference of approximately 1% between calculated and measured doses, aligning with measurement uncertainty. Conclusions: CBW demonstrates outstanding properties for clinical utilization. The dosimetric evaluation underscores a strong agreement between calculated and measured doses, validating its reliability in both planning and clinical settings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.253-259
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• 2020

Mammography has the advantage of being economical, simple and effective in detecting microcalcification, but breast is a highly sensitive organ and is accompanied by the risk of an over-exposure. While accurate dose assessments are important to prevent this, current breast dose assessments are limited to breast implant patients. This purpose of this study was to identify dose variations due to tube voltages by forming a mock-up with breast implants for an accurate dosimetric assessment on breast implant patients. As a result, doses from the presence of breast implants were smaller than those from the absence of the mammal. As the result of the change of the voltage to 26, 28, 30, and 32 kV, the imcreased tube voltage included larger dose regardless of the presence of Breast implant. Therefore, it is believed that diagnosis recommendations for breast implants will be possible if further studies on internal and external bioretical imaging and quality assessment are carried out as the basis for this study.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.275-282
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• 2023

Workers in nuclear power plants are likely to be exposed to radiation from various geometrical sources. In order to evaluate the exposure level, the point-kernel method can be utilized. In order to perform a dose assessment based on this method, the radiation source should be divided into point sources, and the number of divisions should be set by the evaluator. However, for the general public, there may be difficulties in selecting the appropriate number of divisions and performing an evaluation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop an algorithm for dose assessment for arbitrary shaped sources based on the point-kernel method. For this purpose, the point-kernel method was analyzed and the main factors for the dose assessment were selected. Subsequently, based on the analyzed methodology, a dose assessment algorithm for arbitrary shaped sources was developed. Lastly, the developed algorithm was verified using Microshield. The dose assessment procedure of the developed algorithm consisted of 1) boundary space setting step, 2) source grid division step, 3) the set of point sources generation step, and 4) dose assessment step. In the boundary space setting step, the boundaries of the space occupied by the sources are set. In the grid division step, the boundary space is divided into several grids. In the set of point sources generation step, the coordinates of the point sources are set by considering the proportion of sources occupying each grid. Finally, in the dose assessment step, the results of the dose assessments for each point source are summed up to derive the dose rate. In order to verify the developed algorithm, the exposure scenario was established based on the standard exposure scenario presented by the American National Standards Institute. The results of the evaluation with the developed algorithm and Microshield were compare. The results of the evaluation with the developed algorithm showed a range of 1.99×10^-1~9.74×10^-1 μSv hr^-1, depending on the distance and the error between the results of the developed algorithm and Microshield was about 0.48~6.93%. The error was attributed to the difference in the number of point sources and point source distribution between the developed algorithm and the Microshield. The results of this study can be utilized for external exposure radiation dose assessments based on the point-kernel method.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1994.02a
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• pp.469-475
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• 1994

This paper presents a brief survey of current methodology available for quantitative risk assessment of environmental carcinogens. Four current models for low-dose extrapolation are reviewed. Current problems and controversies and possible options in doing quantitative risk assessments based on chronic animal studies are discussed.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.247-254
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• 2003

To prevent the potential health detriment to the public from radioactive effluents, radiological dose assessments due to the operation of nuclear facilities located at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) site has been performed semiannually in compliance with the Minister of Science and Technology (MOST)'s Notice in Korea. Radiological dose assessment based on the new recommendation of the International Committee on Radiation Protection (ICRP-60) has been conducted since 1998. In this manuscript, a serial activities at KAERI site to meet the regulatory standards for routine releases of radioactive effluents are introduced and discussed including technical approaches. It is clear that each nuclear facility has been operated in compliance with regulatory standards. Furthermore, it is identified that the radiation induced health effects for residents around the site are neglectable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.3925-3932
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• 2024

During outages at nuclear power plants, much more care for radiation workers against internal exposure should be ensured given that more hot particles exist relative to the amount during normal operation. If fuel-type hot particles (FTHP) are inhaled, they can cause more severe health risks compared to activation-type hot particles (ATHP), which contain ⁶⁰Co, due to the alpha-emitting nuclides within FTHPs. The activities of difficult-to-measure nuclides within FTHPs inhaled by workers are inferred by the age-dating technique using a¹⁴¹Ce/¹⁴⁴Ce ratio as measured by whole-body counters. However, this method may be limited to outages that last for only a few months due to the short half-life (32.5 days) of ¹⁴¹Ce. We studied the feasibility of utilizing ²⁴¹Am, a nuclide with a long half-life of 432.6 years, as an alternative to ¹⁴¹Ce. Additionally, we improved the performance of a stand-type whole-body counter for low-energy gamma spectroscopy to meet the criterion (RMSE ≤0.25) specified in ANSI/HPS N13.30-2011 by employing an artificial neural network (ANN). This study can contribute to more rapid and accurate internal dose assessments for workers who have inhaled FTHPs during long-term outages at nuclear power plants.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.806-813
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• 2018

$^{222}Rn$ exists in nature in the form of a rare radioactive gas. In terms of environmental radiation, issues regarding $^{222}Rn$ have persisted because of its radiological hazardousness. Ulju County is one of the regions of Ulsan metropolitan city, with a population of 227,699. Ulju County has the highest density of industrial complexes in Korea. In this study, $^{222}Rn$ radioactivity concentration was measured and analyzed in 57 schools in Ulju County using 114 passive LR-115 type detectors to secure radiological safety and confirm basic information for reduction of resident exposure to $^{222}Rn$. The effective dose of $^{222}Rn$ was assessed to find the actual risk of the concentration surveyed in schools to human beings. The dose depended on four factors: subjects, $^{222}Rn$ concentration, dose coefficient, and time. The individuals subjected to dose estimation were classified into three types: students, teachers, and office workers. The subjects had different dwelling locations and times. The findings demonstrate that the radiological hazard to students and workers at schools in Ulju County owing to $^{222}Rn$ is negligible in terms of $^{222}Rn$ activity recommendation level.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 1991

A comparison study is performed on dose assessment programs including DOSE, LIMCAL, and PABLM, DOSE is a program developed for preliminary safety assessments of the low- and intermediate- level radioactive waste disposal, and the others are existing programs applicable to similar calculations. The results show acceptable agreement within an order of magnitude(mrem/yr) except for C-14 and Pu-239. PABLM results higher dose for C-14 while lower value for Pu-239 in comparison with those from DOSE or LIMCAL. It is found that the discrepancy in C-14 is due to difference in transport model introduced and that in Pu-239 is from the different value of dose conversion factor to each program.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.307-314
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• 2016

Cheese is generally considered a safe and nutritious food, but foodborne illnesses linked to cheese consumption have occurred in many countries. Several microbial risk assessments related to Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli infections, causing cheese-related foodborne illnesses, have been conducted. Although the assessments of microbial risk in soft and low moisture cheeses such as semi-hard and hard cheeses have been accomplished, it has been more focused on the correlations between pathogenic bacteria and soft cheese, because cheese-associated foodborne illnesses have been attributed to the consumption of soft cheeses. As a part of this microbial risk assessment, predictive models have been developed to describe the relationship between several factors (pH, Aw, starter culture, and time) and the fates of foodborne pathogens in cheese. Predictions from these studies have been used for microbial risk assessment as a part of exposure assessment. These microbial risk assessments have identified that risk increased in cheese with high moisture content, especially for raw milk cheese, but the risk can be reduced by preharvest and postharvest preventions. For accurate quantitative microbial risk assessment, more data including interventions such as curd cooking conditions (temperature and time) and ripening period should be available for predictive models developed with cheese, cheese consumption amounts and cheese intake frequency data as well as more dose-response models.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2024

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dosimetry for a tooth from an individual exposed is well known as retrospective dosimetry in radiological accidents. A major constraint of the conventional X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry is the necessity to extract the tooth of the exposed patient for dose assessment. In this study, to conduct the dose assessments of exposed patients through part-extraction of tooth enamel, the minimum detectable dose (MDD) of the tooth enamel was evaluated based on the amount of mass. Further, a field test was conducted via intercomparison using various dose assessment methods to verify the feasibility of X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry using the minimum mass of tooth enamel. The intercomparison results demonstrated that effective dose determination via X-band tooth-EPR dosimetry is reliable. Consequently, it was determined that the minimum mass of tooth enamel required to evaluate an absorbed dose above 0.5 Gy is 15 mg. Thus, EPR dosimetry using 15 mg of tooth enamel can be applied in the triage and initial medical response stages for patients exposed during radiological accidents. This approach represents an advancement in managing radiological accidents by offering a more efficient and less invasive method of dose assessment.