Secondary spectrum after shieldings in x-ray rooms

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze secondary radiation spectra after shielding in x-ray rooms, highlighting the importance of secondary radiation in safety assessments and proposing a method for characterizing shields.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using monoenergetic pencil beam simulations to characterize shielding effectiveness across various materials and thicknesses.

Findings

Secondary radiation significantly contributes to radiation behind shields.

Monoenergetic beam response effectively characterizes shielding performance.

Results applicable to clinical scenarios with polyenergetic beams.

Abstract

Background: Calculating the characteristics of radiation emerging from radiation shielding to determine the level of safety in protected areas has been a widely studied topic in Radiation Protection due to its importance for the protection of the public and professionals. Methods: This work provides spatial distributions of energy spectra of emergent photons after shielding barriers. These distributions are obtained through Monte Carlo simulations using monoenergetic pencil photon beams incident on shielding barriers of different materials and thicknesses. The obtained results are applied to calculate the spectra of transmitted radiation in cases of polyenergetic beams similar to those encountered in clinical practice. Results: The significant contribution of secondary radiation in the radiation found behind shields is demonstrated across a wide range of energies, barrier thicknesses and barrier materials. Conclusion: It is shown that characterizing shields using their response to monoenergetic pencil beams provides a useful tool for characterizing radiation behind shields in a wide range of practical situations.