New shielding materials for clinical electron beams

Since lead has recently been recognized as a source of environmental pollution, we have investigated new electron shielding materials that do not contain lead. We compared the shielding thicknesses of a hard plate and a sheet composed of the new materials with that of lead for electron beams. The sh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiotherapy and oncology 2006-09, Vol.80 (3), p.391-393
Main Authors: Tajiri, Minoru, Tokiya, Yuji, Uenishi, Jun, Sunaoka, Masayoshi, Watanabe, Kazuhiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Electron beam
Electrons
Environmental pollution
Humans
Lead
Lead substitute
Materials Testing
Photons
Radiation Protection - instrumentation
Radiation Protection - methods
Radiometry
Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - methods
Radiotherapy, Conformal
Shielding material
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Summary:Since lead has recently been recognized as a source of environmental pollution, we have investigated new electron shielding materials that do not contain lead. We compared the shielding thicknesses of a hard plate and a sheet composed of the new materials with that of lead for electron beams. The shielding thickness was evaluated as the thickness required for shielding primary electrons. The comparison revealed the shielding ability of the hard plate and sheet is approximately equivalent to 1.0 and 0.9 times that of lead, respectively. The thickness (in millimeters) required for shielding by the hard-plate, as well as the thickness of lead, is related to approximately half of the electron-beam energy (in MeV). The shielding ability of the sheet is also equivalent to that of Lipowitz alloy. Moreover these materials are environmentally friendly, and can be easily customized into arbitrary shapes. Therefore they can be used as lead substitutes for shielding against electron beams.
ISSN:0167-8140
1879-0887
DOI:10.1016/j.radonc.2006.08.002