Title:
In-water neutron and gamma dose determination for a new Cf-252 brachytherapy source

dc.contributor.advisor Wang, C.-K. Chris
dc.contributor.author Kelm, Robert S. en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMember Hertel, Nolan E.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Cho, Sang Hyun
dc.contributor.department Mechanical Engineering en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2009-06-08T19:01:09Z
dc.date.available 2009-06-08T19:01:09Z
dc.date.issued 2009-03-17 en_US
dc.description.abstract Recently, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) successfully encapsulated a new generation of medical grade Cf-252 sources having intensities and size comparable to that of the widely used high-dose-rate (HDR) Ir-192 brachytherapy sources. Advent of the new sources, therefore, marked a new era for Cf-252-based neutron brachytherapy (NBT). As part of source calibration and characterization process, a study has been conducted at Georgia Tech lately on determining the neutron and gamma dose rates in water surrounding the new Cf-252 source. A Lucite-walled water phantom was built for this study. The neutron and gamma dose rates were determined both by ion chamber measurements and by Monte Carlo code MCNP. The results show that the measured neutron absorbed dose rates were approximately 25% lower than that predicted by MCNP for all dose positions in water, suggesting that the Cf-252 content of the new source is actually 25% lower than the ORNL's estimate. The measured gamma absorbed dose rates in water, on the contrary, are higher than that predicted by MCNP. The differences between the measured and MCNP-predicted gamma doses are not uniform for all dose positions; they are most pronounced (~a factor of two) at the distance of 1 cm, and fall to approximately 30% at distances 2 cm and beyond. These results suggest that the spectrum of gamma rays emitted from the new Cf-252 source may contain significantly more low-energy gamma rays than the previously published spectrum used in MCNP. en_US
dc.description.degree M.S. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/28121
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.subject Brachytherapy en_US
dc.subject Californium en_US
dc.subject Cf-252 en_US
dc.subject NBT en_US
dc.subject Two-ion chamber method en_US
dc.subject.lcsh Radioisotope brachytherapy
dc.subject.lcsh Neutrons Measurement
dc.subject.lcsh Gamma rays Measurement
dc.subject.lcsh Californium
dc.title In-water neutron and gamma dose determination for a new Cf-252 brachytherapy source en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Wang, C.-K. Chris
local.contributor.corporatename George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 71d23899-d6d4-4d7f-b9bc-d30323a6f442
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication c01ff908-c25f-439b-bf10-a074ed886bb7
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
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