• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 1998

In recent, the demand of development of the high dose rate brachytherapy source increased for substitute for Co-60 source by iridium source, since the supplying Co-60 source is very depressed and the high dose rate brachytherapy sources are entirely imported from the abroad. This study investigated the exposure rates and isotropic dose distributions for the Ir-192 source produced from $\^$191/Ir(n,r)$\^$192/Ir by nuclear reactor in Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. The activity of source was obtained an 1.012 Ci (the initial activity without encapsulation was 2,87Ci) by measurement with encapsuled stainless steel. The exposure rate of provided Ir-192 source was determined on 6.36 ${\pm}$ 0.147 Rm$^2$/h-GBq (2.350 ${\pm}$ 0.054 Rcm$^2$/mCi-hr) within ${\pm}$ 2.2% discrepancy with IC-10 ion chamber (0.14 cc) which was mounted on the acrylic jig to 5, 10 and 20 cm from the center of source. The calculated doses with 22 most significant spectrum lines were corrected with intrinsic efficiency of the germanium detector were compared to measured exposure dose rates within ${\pm}$3.8 % discrepancy. The authors confirmed the high dose rate Ir-192 source could be replaced the long decayed Co-60 source via investigation of the isotropic dose distributions in lateral, source axis and diagonal direction of source center are very closed to within 3% uncertainties. Especially, this exposure rate constant and isotropic dose distribution will be fundamental to build the high dose rate source and develop the computed therapy planning system.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.127-133
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• 2021

Background: Phosphogypsum is material produced as a byproduct in fertilizer industry and is generally used for building materials. This material may contain enhanced radium-226 (²²⁶Ra) activity concentration compared to its natural concentration that may lead to indoor radon accumulation. Therefore, an accurate measurement method is proposed in this study to determine ²²⁶Ra activity concentration in phosphogypsum sample, considering the potential radon leakage from the sample container. Materials and Methods: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) phosphogypsum reference material was used as a sample in this study. High-purity germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometry was used to measure the activity concentration of the ²²⁶Ra decay products, i.e., ²¹⁴Bi and ²¹⁴Pb. Marinelli beakers sealed with three different sealing methods were used as sample containers. Due to the potential leakage of radon from the Marinelli beaker (MB), correction to the activity concentration resulted in gamma spectrometry is needed. Therefore, the leaked fraction of radon escaped from the sample container was calculated and added to the gamma spectrometry measured values. Results and Discussion: Total activity concentration of ²²⁶Ra was determined by summing up the activity concentration from gamma spectrometry measurement and calculated concentration from radon leakage correction method. The results obtained from ²¹⁴Bi peak were 723.4 ± 4.0 Bq·kg^-1 in MB1 and 719.2 ± 3.5 Bq·kg^-1 in MB2 that showed about 5% discrepancy compared to the certified activity. Besides, results obtained from ²¹⁴Pb peak were 741.9 ± 3.6 Bq·kg^-1 in MB1 and 740.1 ± 3.4 Bq·kg^-1 in MB2 that showed about 2% difference compared to the certified activity measurement of ²²⁶Ra concentration activity. Conclusion: The results show that radon leakage correction was calculated with insignificant discrepancy to the certified values and provided improvement to the gamma spectrometry. Therefore, measuring ²²⁶Ra activity concentration in TENORM (technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material) sample using radon leakage correction can be concluded as a convenient and accurate method that can be easily conducted with simple calculation.