Monte Carlo simulation of dose coefficients for a fish eye lens model exposed to monoenergetic electrons

• Published in: Journal of environmental radioactivity 2019-04, Vol.199-200, p.7-15
• Main Authors: Nogueira, P., Hiller, M., Aust, M.-O.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0265-931X; 1879-1700
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.12.021

Vision is an important sense for the majority of the wildlife species, affecting their ability to find food and escape predation. Currently, no study on radiation induced cataract frequency on the fish eyes lens has been done. However, any thorough future study of this subject will require more accurate dose estimates for the fish eye lens than those currently available. For this purpose, the eye lens absorbed dose per unit fluence conversion coefficients for electron irradiation were calculated using the MCNPX Monte Carlo radiation transport code package. All results were validated against three different fish voxel models. The discrepancies between model results mainly originate from the different fish eye dimensions used in the different studies and in two of the cases the lack of a defined eye lens region. The dose conversion coefficients calculated in this work can be used to estimate the dose to the fish eye lens based on the activity concentration of the surrounding water. The model developed in this work has also demonstrated that the mathematical models still have several advantages over the voxel models. •External doses to a fish eye lens were calculated using a realistic fish eye model.•The developed model provides improved accuracy of dose to fish eye lens.•Provided dose coefficients facilitates calculation of doses in aquatic environments.