A Monte Carlo analysis of possible cell dose enhancement effects by uranium microparticles in photon fields

J. S. Eakins; J. Th M. Jansen; R. J. Tanner

doi:10.1093/rpd/ncq398

A Monte Carlo analysis of possible cell dose enhancement effects by uranium microparticles in photon fields

J. S. Eakins^*, J. Th M. Jansen, R. J. Tanner

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Uranium microparticles (radii: 50 nm-1.25 μm) were modelled surrounded by tissue and exposed to natural background radiation, in order to investigate potential dose enhancements from photon interactions. Generally, the results depended on the microparticle size. For a 0.5 μm radius microparticle in an isotropic field, it was found that the combined photon/electron doses deposited in 1 and 10 μm radii shells around it were raised by factors of ~3.8 and ~1.1, respectively; for a typical background photon fluence rate, these would correspond to increased energy depositions of a few 10s and a few 100s of eV y^-1, which are far less than the likely deposition rate resulting from the radioactive decay of a ²³⁸U microparticle. The health hazard from uranium microparticle interactions with background photons was concluded to be negligible. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Health Protection Agency 2010.

Original language	English
Article number	ncq398
Pages (from-to)	177-180
Number of pages	4
Journal	Radiation Protection Dosimetry
Volume	143
Issue number	2-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncq398
Publication status	Published - Feb 2011

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title = "A Monte Carlo analysis of possible cell dose enhancement effects by uranium microparticles in photon fields",

abstract = "Uranium microparticles (radii: 50 nm-1.25 μm) were modelled surrounded by tissue and exposed to natural background radiation, in order to investigate potential dose enhancements from photon interactions. Generally, the results depended on the microparticle size. For a 0.5 μm radius microparticle in an isotropic field, it was found that the combined photon/electron doses deposited in 1 and 10 μm radii shells around it were raised by factors of ~3.8 and ~1.1, respectively; for a typical background photon fluence rate, these would correspond to increased energy depositions of a few 10s and a few 100s of eV y-1, which are far less than the likely deposition rate resulting from the radioactive decay of a 238U microparticle. The health hazard from uranium microparticle interactions with background photons was concluded to be negligible. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Health Protection Agency 2010.",

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AU - Tanner, R. J.

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AB - Uranium microparticles (radii: 50 nm-1.25 μm) were modelled surrounded by tissue and exposed to natural background radiation, in order to investigate potential dose enhancements from photon interactions. Generally, the results depended on the microparticle size. For a 0.5 μm radius microparticle in an isotropic field, it was found that the combined photon/electron doses deposited in 1 and 10 μm radii shells around it were raised by factors of ~3.8 and ~1.1, respectively; for a typical background photon fluence rate, these would correspond to increased energy depositions of a few 10s and a few 100s of eV y-1, which are far less than the likely deposition rate resulting from the radioactive decay of a 238U microparticle. The health hazard from uranium microparticle interactions with background photons was concluded to be negligible. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Health Protection Agency 2010.

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A Monte Carlo analysis of possible cell dose enhancement effects by uranium microparticles in photon fields

Abstract

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