Development of Quick Scan Whole Body Monitor for in-vivo Monitoring of Radiation Workers and General Public

Whole Body monitoring of radiation workers at nuclear facilities is a regulatory requirement and is recommended for assessment of internal contamination due to gamma emitting radio nuclides. Additionally, nuclear accidents like Chernobyl, Fukushima and radiological accidents like Goiania have clearly highlighted the need for in-vivo monitoring of the members of the public during and/or after such accidents. To cater to these requirements, a high throughput, fast screening, standing linear geometry Quick Scan Whole Body Monitor (QS-WBM) is designed, fabricated and commissioned to measure internal contamination due to gamma emitting radio nuclides (E γ >200keV) incorporated in the human body. The system is designed to achieve sensitivity comparable with conventional WBM for 1 2 minutes counting time and to accommodate different body sizes of Indian occupational workers. It is calibrated using BARC reference Bottle Mannequin Absorption (BOMAB) type phantom and also using a family of BOMAB type phantoms representative of different age groups namely 1-, 5-, 10-, 15and 20years. The developed system will also be highly useful during emergency situations when large numbers of persons are to be monitored in short interval of time.