A Study of Radiation Exposure in Proton Therapy Facility

Lee, Sang Hoon; Shin, Dongho; Yoon, Myonggeun; Shin, Jungwook; Rah, Jeong Eun; Kwak, Jungwon; Park, Sung Yong; Shin, Kyung Hwan; Lee, Doo Hyun; Ahn, Sung Hwan; Kim, Dae Yong; Cho, Kwan Ho; Lee, Se Byeong

Abstract

Proton therapy facility, which is recently installed at National Cancer Center in Korea, generally produces a large amount of radiation near cyclotron due to the secondary particles and radioisotopes caused by collision between proton and nearby materials during the acceleration. Although the level of radiation by radioisotope decreases in length of time, radiation exposure problem still exists since workers are easily exposed by a low level of radiation for a long time due to their job assignment for maintenance or repair of the proton facility. In this paper, the working environment near cyclotron, where the highest radiation exposure is expected, was studied by measuring the degree of radiation and its duration for an appropriate level of protective action guide. To do this, we measured the radiation change in the graphite based energy degrader, the efficiency of transmitted beam and relative activation degree of the transmission beam line. The results showed that while the level of radiation exposure around cyclotron and beam line during the operation is much higher than the other radiation therapy facilities, the radiation exposure rate per year is under the limit recommended by the law showing 1~3 mSv/year.