Applied Physics of External Radiation Exposure : Dosimetry and Radiation Protection

This book describes the interaction of living matter with photons, neutrons, charged particles, electrons and ions. The authors are specialists in the field of radiation protection. The book synthesizes many years of experiments with external radiation exposure in the fields of dosimetry and radiation shielding in medical, industrial and research fields. It presents the basic physical concepts including dosimetry and offers a number of tools to be used by students, engineers and technicians to assess the radiological risk and the means to avoid them by calculating the appropriate shields. The theory of radiation interaction in matter is presented together with empirical formulas and abacus. Numerous numerical applications are treated to illustrate the different topics. The state of the art in radiation protection and dosimetry is presented in detail, especially in the field of simulation codes for external exposure to radiation, medical projects and advanced research. Moreover, important data spread in different up to date references are presented in this book. The book deals also with accelerators, X-rays facilities, sealed sources, dosimetry, Monte Carlo simulation and radiation regulation. Each chapter is split in two parts depending on the level of details the readers want to focus on. The first part, accessible to a large public, provides a lot of simple examples to help understanding the physics concepts under radiation external exposure. The second part, called “Additional Information” is not mandatory; it aims on explaining topics more deeply, often using mathematical formulations. The book treats fundamental radiometric and dosimetric quantities to describe the interaction in materials under the aspects of absorbed dose processes in tissues. Definitions and applications on limited and operational radiation protection quantities are given. An important aspect are practical engineering tools in industrial, medical and research domains. Source characterization and shielding design are addressed. Also more ”exotic” topics, such as ultra intense laser and new generation accelerators, are treated. The state of the art is presented to help the reader to work with the book in a self-consistent way. The basic knowledge necessary to apply Monte Carlo methods in the field of radiation protection and dosimetry for external radiation exposure is provided. Coverage of topics such as variance reduction, pseudo-random number generation and statistic estimators make the book useful even to experienced Monte Carlo practitioners. Solved problems help the reader to understand the Monte Carlo process. The book is meant to be used by researchers, engineers and medical physicist. It is also valuable to technicians and students.

Rodolphe Antoni received a master degree in radiation protection from the joseph Fourier university of Grenoble in 1998. From 1999 to 2001 he was at the OPRI (French governmental office for radiation protection), working on authorizations of radioactive waste release from nuclear plants. From 2001, he joins the radiation protection service at CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) at Saclay, where he works on dosimetry and radiation protection R&D. Along with this position, he teaches radiation physics and protection in bachelor and master degrees at INSTN (Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires). Since 2009, he works at LMN (nuclear measurement Laboratory) at CEA Cadarache center, on non-destructive essay for radioactive waste with neutron measurement based on differential die-away technique and coincidence. He received his Ph.D. in 2014 on this topic.  

After his master degree Laurent Bourgois began his career atthe CEA (French atomic energy commission) Saclay research center in the radiation protection department in 1991. He worked in different fields of radiation protection: particle accelerators, X-rays generator, nuclear fuel, high-activity sealed sources facilities; environment; metrology; dosimetry; radiation shielding; nuclear safety; nuclear intervention; detection; ... He occupied various management positions. In 2007 he was appointed Radiation Protection department head at the CEA/DAM Ile de France research center (Bruyère la chatel center). He participated of various expertise activities (e.g. expert for french nuclear safety authority), training activities (e.g. lecturer in radiation shielding, European master in radiation protection), various task groups (e.g. evaluation of the radiological and economic consequence of decommissioning particle accelerators, Development of methodology for RN material detection, management and protection of the public for the european commission, X-rays generator standards), etc. In 2009, he was appointed senior expert at CEA in "Organization and Engineering" with specialization in "nuclear safety and radiation protection." In 2012 he was appointed senior lecturer at “Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires” (INSTN). He is author of many scientific publications in the fields of radiation protection.