Sci—Fri AM: Mountain — 03: Current status of the NRC primary standard for {sup 192}Ir HDR brachytherapy sources
- National Research Council of Canada (Canada)
The Canadian primary standard for {sup 192}Ir HDR brachytherapy sources has been recently revised in a more accurate manner allowing for more realistic uncertainty estimation. Air-kerma strength S{sub k} is derived from measurements of the source's output using a graphite-walled spherical ionization chamber (2S) at several distances. Traceability to NRC primary standards for the {sup 192}Ir calibration coefficient N{sub k} is insured by estimating it as the inverse arithmetic mean of the inverse of the calibration coefficients for a {sup 137}Cs beam and the medium energy x-ray beam quality N250, both of which are traceable to NRC primary standards. The multiple-distance method is combined with a non-linear least squares fit to determine St, while at the same time removing the effects of room scatter and position offset. The previously used shadow-cone method for directly measuring the room scatter is found to be inadequate due to the increased scatter contribution from the lead cone itself, especially at short source-detector distances. Rather than including the reported 1% difference in source strength for {sup 192}Ir HDR sources of different construction into the total uncertainty, users are cautioned that the calibration coefficient provided by NRC is only valid for a microSelectron V2 model. A comprehensive uncertainty budged shows that the total one sigma uncertainty of the standard is actually 0.6% rather than the previously assumed 1.2%. NRC measured S{sub k} agrees within 0.03% of the manufacturer's value.
- OSTI ID:
- 22407700
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 41, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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