Neutron dose coefficients for the lens of the eye

N E Hertel; K G Veinot; M M Hiller; K F Eckerman

doi:10.1088/1361-6498/abfff5

Neutron dose coefficients for the lens of the eye

J Radiol Prot. 2021 Sep 28;41(4). doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/abfff5.

Authors

N E Hertel¹, K G Veinot², M M Hiller³, K F Eckerman⁴

Affiliations

¹ Georgia Institute of Technology, Nuclear and Radiological Engineering Program, G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, 770 State Street, Atlanta, GA 30332-0745, United States of America.
² Y-12 National Security Complex, P.O. Box 2009, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8206, United States of America.
³ Independent Researcher, Stolberg, Germany.
⁴ Easterly Scientific, 6412 Westminster Rd, Knoxville, TN 37919, United States of America.

PMID: 33975295
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6498/abfff5

Abstract

The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) Report Number 95 (2020 Operational quantities for external radiation exposureICRU Rep. 95 J. ICRU20) recommends new definitions ffor operational quantities as estimators of the International Commission on Radiological Protection radiation protection quantities. As part of this report, dose coefficients for neutron fluences are included for energies from 10^-9-50 MeV. For lens of the eye dosimetry, several changes in the ICRU recommended quantities are of particular interest. First, an updated eye model is used that includes segmentation of the sensitive lens region. In addition, the use of absorbed dose instead of dose equivalent has been selected as the appropriate operational quantity since deterministic (i.e. non-stochastic) effects are of primary importance for the lens of the eye. The ICRU report also addresses computational parameters, such as absorbed dose tally volumes, depths, source areas and source rotational angles. In this work, neutron dose coefficients calculated for the lens of the eye in support of the ICRU report are presented. Dose coefficients for mono-energetic neutrons and reference neutron spectra are presented. The source is a parallel beam, and the mono-energetic dose coefficients are provided for rotational angles with respect to the front face of the head ranging from 0°-90°. In addition, monoenergetic dose coefficients for the parallel beam incident on the back of the head (180°) and for a rotational source geometry where the head is irradiated from all angles are reported. For all scenarios, absorbed doses to the complete lens and the sensitive volume of each eye were calculated. Eye lens absorbed dose coefficients,D_p,slab(3,0)/Φ, were also calculated in an ICRU tissue slab phantom at a depth of 3 mm for a parallel beam irradiating the slab perpendicular to the front face, and these results are compared to the values determined using the eye phantom.

Keywords: absorbed dose; lens of the eye; neutron.

MeSH terms

Lens, Crystalline*
Neutrons
Radiation Dosage
Radiation Protection*
Radiometry