Evaluation of skin absorbed doses during manipulation of radioactive sources: a comparison between the VARSKIN code and Monte Carlo simulations

The evaluation of skin doses during manipulation of radioactive sources can be a critical issue for
which the most accurate calculation strategies available should be used. The aim of this work was to
compare the results of the analytical approach used in VARSKIN with the simulation of radiation
transport and interaction by Monte Carlo calculations in GAMOS (GEANT4-based Architecture for
Medicine-Oriented Simulations), and to provide an accurate and versatile tool for the evaluation of
skin doses from radionuclide sources of any realistic shape (e.g. cylindrical, parallelepiped), even
in the presence of multiple interposed absorber layers. A set of 20 radionuclides (pure β , β – γ ,
Auger and γ emitters) from among the most frequently employed in nuclear medicine and laboratory
practices were selected for comparison. We studied a point-like and a cylindrical source, in the
presence of varying thicknesses of absorbing layers. We found a general agreement f...

Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - January 31, 2018 Category: Physics Authors: Ernesto Amato and Antonio Italiano Source Type: research