Dose coefficients for children and young adolescents exposed to external neutron fields

The risks associated with exposure to external fields of ionising radiation are important to
quantify in order to provide guidance towards public and worker protection. In Publication 116 of
2010, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) published adult male and female
fluence-to-dose coefficients (henceforth referred to as dose coefficients) for external exposures to
six types of idealised neutron fields. However, ICRP 116 dose coefficients are not appropriate for
applications involving children due to their smaller body weight and stature. Our current work
details dose coefficient calculations for children and young adolescents using the UF-NCI pediatric
hybrid phantoms at all neutron energies considered in ICRP 116 (0.001 eV to 10 GeV); those dose
coefficients with energy up to 150 MeV are discussed. The hybrid UF-NCI phantoms are divided into
five separate age groups: newborn, 1, 5, 10, and 15 years. For these phantoms, we calculated dose
coefficients f...

Source: Journal of Radiological Protection - March 27, 2018 Category: Physics Authors: Keith Griffin, Matthew Mille and Choonsik Lee Source Type: research