[ RadSafe ] Activity versus dose/exposure

Thu Jun 23 18:38:29 CDT 2011

It appears Unger and Trubey, Specific Gamma-Ray Dose Constants for Nuclides Important to Dosimetry and Radiological Assessment, ORNL/RISC-45/R1, 1982 is the original source of the specific gamma-ray dose constant 1.131e-5. 
The gamma/x-ray data used for Cf-252 is reported to be:
E		Abundance
15		0.0728
68.2	0.0003

These energy and abundance data are quite different from what is more recently reported for Cf-252 elsewhere such as the Lund/LBNL site or Akovali in Nuclear Data Sheets 87, 249 (1999) as reported in the BNL Nudat2 site .  This may be the source of the discrepancy.

Phil Simpson
Assistant Reactor Manager (Ret.)
University of Michigan
Ford Nuclear Reactor

On Jun 23, 2011, at 2:31 PM, Rouse, Raymond Lawrence wrote:

> Hey Jim,
> 
> The manufacture gave us the dose rates we should see when we receive
> this source, neutron dose rates and gamma dose rates. We were double
> checking their math and the neutron was right but when we checked the
> gamma out using the gamma constant from the Radiological Health Handbook
> Chapter 6 1992 Revised Edition author Schleien. We assumed he gamma
> constant would include the contributions from all the fission products.
> 
> Doing some research I found a paper by Knauer and Balo. In this paper
> they cite a rule of thumb .0019 mSv/hr per micro-gram of Cf-252. When I
> plug in the numbers for this I am coming real close to what the
> manufacture provided me. 
> 
> Anyone
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Hardeman
> Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:32 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList;
> The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Activity versus dose/exposure
> 
> Raymond --
> 
> Is the manufacturer quoting total dose rate (i.e. gamma + neutron) or
> just gamma, which is what you would be calculating with the gamma
> constant below?
> 
> Is it safe to assume that the gamma constant for Cf-252 includes the
> contributions from all of the fission products resulting from
> spontaneous fission?
> 
> Jim Hardeman, Manager
> Environmental Radiation Program
> Environmental Protection Division
> Georgia Department of Natural Resources
> 4220 International Parkway, Suite 100
> Atlanta, GA 30354
> (404) 362-2675
> Fax: (404) 362-2653
> Personal fax: (404) 521-4485
> E-mail: Jim.Hardeman at dnr.state.ga.us 
> 
> 
>>>> "Rouse, Raymond Lawrence" <rlrouse at tva.gov> 6/23/2011 11:13 >>>
> OK all you radsafers,
> 
> A colleague and I were working on a problem earlier yesterday when this
> post came out.
> 
> Calculate the 30 cm reading from a 304 milli-curie Cf-252 source. We
> used the gamma constant of 1.131 e-5. We came up with the same dose
> rate,  here is the problem it was 10 times less then what the
> manufacture is telling us. So we decided to used micro-shield program
> and that number was even smaller than what we came up with - much
> smaller.
> 
> Anyone care to take a stab at this?
> 
> 
> Raymond Rouse
> Health Physicist
> Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
> PO Box 2000
> Spring City, Tn 37381
> (423)-365-1881
> rlrouse at tva.gov 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Carol Marcus" <csmarcus at ucla.edu>
>> To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
> List" <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>, "The
>> International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List"
> <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:22:54 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Activity versus dose/exposure
>> Dear John:
>> 
>> It's called the "Specific Gamma-ray Dose Constant" and you can find a
>> table of them on pp 6-10 to 6-14 in the third edition (1998) of
>> Schleien, Slaback, and Birky's "Handbook of Health Physics and
>> Radiological Health".
>> 
>> Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
>> Depts. of Radiation Oncology and of Radiological Sciences
>> David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
>> 
> --
> John G. Center, Jr.
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