The Inverse-Square Law and the

Exponential Attenuation Law Used to the

Shielding Calculation in Radiotherapy on a
High School Level
Cite as: Phys. Teach. 54, 239 (2016); https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4944368
Published Online: 15 March 2016

Eduardo de Paiva

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The Inverse-Square Law and the
Exponential Attenuation Law Used
to the Shielding Calculation in
Radiotherapy on a High School Level
Eduardo de Paiva, Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria-IRD/CNEN, Brazil

E
very year millions of people contract cancer in the
world, and according to prediction of the World Health
Organization by the year 2030 there will be about 27
million new cases. Because of these figures and the resulting
social and economic implications of this disease, radiother-
apy, which is one form of treatment that uses ionizing radia-
tion,1 has a great importance. In the classroom the teacher
can introduce the subject of the use of ionizing radiation in
medicine and the basic physical principles to calculate the
thickness of the walls of the rooms that house ionizing radia-
tion sources.
Radiotherapy can be classified as brachytherapy when
the radiation source is near or in contact with the lesion, and
teletherapy when the source is external and distant from the
lesion. In the latter case, there are large clinical linear accelera-
tors2 that produce photon beams of high energies (up to tens
of megaelectron-volts).3 In external beam radiation therapy,
an important problem of radiation protection is how to calcu-
late the shielding barrier thickness in order to avoid the vicin-
essentially on the inverse-square law and on the exponential
attenuation law of radiation intensity, as follows.
A. The inverse-square law
Let us consider that the radiation source in Fig. 1(b) is
a point source (in high-energy external radiotherapy the
photon source can be considered as a point source since its
dimensions [a few millimeters] are much smaller than the
usual distances to the barrier used in teletherapy [some me-
ters]) that emits radiation isotropically, and is two imaginary
concentric spheres of radii d0 and d meters with their centers
on the source. The number of photons emerging from each
sphere per unit area is j0 and jd, respectively, for the spheres
of radii d0 and d meters. As the total number of photons ema-
nating from the source and that cross each concentric sphere
is a conserved quantity, we can write
(1)
0

ity of the treatment room receiving an amount of radiation

above the permissible level. air
The aim of this short note is to extend the classroom work
by the use of basic physical laws applied to a practical problem
in medicine. In this attempt simple introductory physics is
sufficient. D0 D1 D
Source A
|---- d0 ----| A1
The primary barrier thickness
In Fig. 1(a) is depicted the treatment room with a high- |- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - d 1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
energy photon source and a primary barrier, i.e., a barrier (b) |- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - d - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|

exposed directly to the beam. The quantity to be estimated

in this case is the dose equivalent, defined as the product
between the quality factor for the radiation (a dimension-
less quantity that depends on the type of radiation) and the S
absorbed dose (the ratio dE/dm, where dE is the mean energy
air
concrete

imparted by radiation to matter of mass dm, in SI J/kg, which

receives the name gray, symbol Gy). A critical question is how D1 P
Source A
to estimate the primary barrier thickness S in order to ensure A1
that the weekly dose equivalent at point A beyond the barrier |- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - d1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
does not exceed the acceptable level P. The dose per week P (a) |-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - d - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----|

has different recommended values according to whether the

area is controlled (an area to which only the workers of the
facility who are trained in the use of ionizing radiation have
access) or an uncontrolled area (all areas with no limited ac-
cess). The amount of radiation that reaches point A depends
Fig. 1. Geometry used in the calculation of barrier thick-
ness S. In part (a) is illustrated the exponential attenuation
law. In part (b) is illustrated the inverse-square law, with no
shielding.

DOI: 10.1119/1.4944368 THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 54, April 2016 239
which is the mathematical expression of the inverse-square
law. In terms of dose rates, Eq. (1) can be written as
(2)
where D is the dose rate at the distance d [with no shielding,
see Fig. 1(b)] and D0 is the dose rate at the reference distance
d0 (here considered as 1 m). D0 depends on parameters of
the electron linear accelerator (linac); the number of patients
treated per day; the frequency and types of treatment; and
whether the point A to be protected is an area with sporadic,
partial, or full occupancy.4 It is important to note that D is
the dose equivalent per week that a person located at distance
d in point A would receive in the absence of shielding.5 In a
similar way we can write for the dose D1 at distance d1 (point
A1, see Fig. 1) from the source
1
(3)
B. The exponential attenuation law
The attenuation of the intensity of an electromagnetic
radiation beam as it passes through an absorbing medium is
described by the exponential law
production is the dominant process of interaction. For pho-
ton energies above 10 MeV, photonuclear reactions can occur
with the emission of nucleons, mainly neutrons, but this pro-
cess of interaction is expected to contribute at most 10% to
the total mechanism of photointeraction.6
C. The expression for the primary barrier thickness
In Fig. 1(a) the dose D1 is the same dose equivalent shown
in part B, obtained by the inverse-square law [see Eq. (3)].
In Fig. 1(a) is also shown a barrier of thickness S (= d – d1)
placed between point A1 and the point to be protected in
order to reduce the dose equivalent at distance d to the maxi-
mum permissible value P. When the amount of radiation at
A1 passes through the material of thickness S, it reaches the
point A simultaneously reduced by the inverse-square law
and by the attenuator. So, the weekly dose equivalent P is ob-
tained by a combination of the two laws
(6)
and with Eqs. (2) and (3) we have
(7)

I = I0 e –mx ,
where I is the radiation transmitted when radiation of initial
intensity I0 encounters a material of thickness x, and m is the
linear attenuation coefficient, which depends on the energy
of radiation and on the nature of the absorbing material. The
attenuation of a photon beam is mainly governed by Thom-
son scattering, Compton scattering (scattering processes) and
photoelectric effect, pair production (in nuclear and elec-
tron field), and photodisintegration (absorption processes).
Therefore, the attenuation coefficient m represents the sum of
individual coefficients
m = m Thomson + mphotoel + mCompton + mpair + mphotodis.
Thomson scattering is important only at low energies of
the incident photon (E < 10 keV) and for high atomic number
Z of the absorber, and therefore in radiotherapy with the use
of linear accelerators (E  4 MeV) it can be neglected. The
attenuation from the photoelectric effect is roughly propor-
tional to Zn/E3, where n is a number between 3 and 4, and
for this reason it is the principal mechanism of interaction
at low photon energies; as the photon energy increases, the
contribution of photoelectric effect decreases sharply until
the photon energy exceeds the electron binding energy and
Compton scattering begins to predominate. Compton scat-
tering decreases with energy and is quite independent of Z.
The contribution of pair production to the total attenuation
coefficient has a threshold energy of 1.02 MeV and increases
with Z2 and with the photon energy. As the energy increases,
the contribution due to Compton scattering diminishes and
the pair production increases. At higher energies the pair
(4) It should be noted that the ratio P/D is just the factor of
transmission necessary to reduce D to P. From the above
equation the barrier thickness S can be written as
(8)
For each material and radiation energy there is a thickness of
the material that reduces the intensity of incident radiation
to one-tenth of its initial value, the tenth-value layer (TV L).
Therefore, from Eq. (4) it is straightforward to obtain
(9)
(5)
Combining relations (8) and (9) results in
(10)
Finally, inserting Eq. (2) obtained from the inverse-square
law, we have
(11)
1
for the primary barrier thickness. Note that the dose D1 does
not appear in this final equation. We are not interested in the
dose at the left of the barrier; it was introduced just to make
the derivation of the above equation more clear.
D. Examples of calculation
1. Let us consider a 10-MV facility (refer to Fig. 2). Suppose
that the distance from the source to the point of interest on
the outer side of the barrier is 5.5 m; location A is a public

240 THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 54, April 2016

 area, a garden, with partial occupancy so that the recom-
mended shielding design goal is P = 0.02 mSv/week,4,7 and
the dose rate D0 is equal to 125 Gy/week.8 From Table B.2
Secondary
radiation
shielding
10 MV linac
W = 1000 Gy/week
door
Fig. 2. Schematic view of a typical radiotherapy
facility room with a 10-MV linac. The photon
beam hits the primary barrier horizontally. Also
shown is a secondary barrier, i.e., not exposed
directly to the beam.
of Ref. 3 the TVL for 10-MV x-rays in ordinary concrete is
0.41 m. Then, using Eq. (11) the required barrier thickness
is
2. In Fig. 3 is shown a floorplan of an actual radiotherapy
room with a 4-MV linac. S1 and S2 are primary barriers
used to protect, respectively, a waiting room and a patient
examination room. It is to be noted that the equipment
can rotate so that the photon beam can be directed toward
the left wall (S2) or toward the right wall (S1). The distance
from the source to the point of interest on the outer side
of both barriers is 6.1 m; both locations are considered as
uncontrolled areas with P = 0.02 mSv/week, and the dose
Patient examination room, T = 1/2, U = 1/4
S2
Fig. 3. A floorplan of an actual radiotherapy facil-
ity room with a 4-MV linac. The photon beam
directed toward the left barrier (S2) is shown, and
all distances are expressed in meters.
rates D0 are 6.25 Gy/week and 100 Gy/week when the
beam is directed respectively to the right and to left. From
Table B.2 of Ref. 3 the TVL for 4-MV x-rays in concrete
is 0.35 m, and from Eq. (11) the required barriers thick-
Primary beam
nesses are
shielding
garden
A
----- S -----
The values obtained above compare well to the actual values
indicated in the figure, 1.38 m and 1.85 m, respectively (dif-
maze
ferences < 3%). At this point the teacher can formulate some
questions, such as:
1. What is the physical meaning of P/D = 1?
2. How do the above equations change if we use the defini-
tion of HVL (a thickness of the material that reduces the
intensity of incident radiation to one-half of its initial
value, the half-value layer) instead of TVL?
3. What is the thickness of the required primary barrier if
we use steel or lead instead of concrete?
1 A discussion on the validity of the inverse-
square law
Now, let us analyze the validity of the previous descrip-
tion regarding the assumption that the strength of the source
follows an inverse-square law, or, in other words, the source
is point like and the radiation does not interact with the air.
No interaction between photons and air means that I = I0
= 1 [no air layer between the source and the inner barrier
surface, see Eq. (4)], an ideal physical situation that is obvi-
ously impossible, and on the other hand a strong interaction
implies that I/I0 << 1. Thus, we can determine the maximum
distances within which interaction of photons with air is neg-
ligible assuming as a good approximation that I/ I0 * 0.975.
Considering that the atmosphere inside the treatment room
is constituted only of dry air (C, N, O, and Ar with fractions
Waiting room, T = 1/32, U = 1/4
4 MV LINAC
W = 800 Gy/week by weight respectively equal to 0.000124, 0.755268, 0.231781,
source S1 and 0.012827), with linear coefficients m as a function of
photon energy given in Ref. 6, and also considering as the
1.38
processes of interaction of radiation with air only Compton
scattering, pair production, and photonuclear absorption, we
calculate the ratios of transmitted to incident photon intensi-
ties when the photon traverses an air layer of thickness d – S
by means of Eqs. (4) and (5). Here S is calculated for ordinary
concrete (r = 2.35 g/cm3), uncontrolled area (P = 0.02 mSv/
week), and for a constant value of the dose rate D0 equal to
125 Gy/week for photon energies ranging from 4 to 30 MeV.
Using the transmittance ratio of 0.975 as the criterion for
in
whether the inverse-square law is significantly violated, we
THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 54, April 2016 241
find that the maximum distances from the source to point
A vary from dmax . 8.5 m for 4 MeV up to dmax . 14 m for
30 MeV, as shown in Fig. 4. The trend of the ratio I/I0 with
distance shown in Fig. 4 does not change in a significant way
if we adopt the recommended value for controlled area
(P = 0.1 mSv/week)4,7 and/or use a dose rate D0 equal to
250 Gy/week.
1.00
0.95
Ratio of intensities, I/I0
30
M ary barriers.
eV
0.90
6M
eV
0.85
4M
eV
0.80
3 10
Distance from the source, d [m]
Fig. 4. Ratio of the transmitted to incident photon
intensity in dry air as a function of distance from
the source to the point to be protected. Photon
energies are equal to 4, 6, 10, 15, 20, and 30 MeV.
In view of the inverse-square law a very short source inner
surface of the barrier distance is desirable, although it is not
achievable in practice. Nevertheless, if we adopt as an op-
erational separation (dop) between the source and the inner
barrier surface the value of d1 = 3 m (a reasonable horizontal
distance that allows the staff to freely circulate around the lin-
ear accelerator during the positioning of the patients and car-
rying out quality control checks), the minimum distances d
from the source to point A vary from dmin . 4.9 m for 4 MeV
up to dmin . 5.7 m for 30 MeV. These results can be found by
setting S = d – dop in Eq. (11) and solving it numerically for d.
Once again, these minimum distances do not change signifi-
cantly if we adopt the recommended value for controlled area
and/or duplicate the dose rate D0.
Conclusion
Basic hypotheses are used in a direct calculation method
to estimate the primary barrier thickness of a radiotherapy
facility room housing a high-energy photon source. The
method is based on the application of the inverse-square law
and on exponential attenuation law of radiation intensity, and
a simple analysis of the validity of the inverse-square law is
done for common distances used in teletherapy. Results have
indicated that for high-energy external radiotherapy with
photon sources with energies varying from 4 to 30 MeV, the
minimum distances to the barrier are in the range ~ 4.9 –
5.7 m and the maximum distances to the protected region are
242 THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 54, April 2016
in the range ~ 8.5 – 14 m.
Finally, the teacher may propose (to the interested stu-
dents) some extra activities:
1. The students can be encouraged to investigate how the
concepts and methodology described in this work may be
applicable to derive an expression to estimate the second-
ary barrier thickness (see Fig. 2).
2. A visit of students to a radiotherapy facility can be ar-
ranged (although this visit is not something trivial to
achieve, due to the daily routine of treatments) where
they could see details of the linear accelerator room and
they could have a better view of the primary and second-
3. Students can be asked to do their own shielding design
for a radiotherapy facility room with a linear accelerator.
They should make a plan (in a given scale) of the room
and specify the distances, the areas (controlled or uncon-
trolled), the use and occupancy factors, the workload,
the dose rate D0, the energy of the photon beam, and the
thickness of the primary barriers.
50
References
1. H. M. Doss, Ionizing Radiation and Humans –The Basics,
http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/radiation
andhumans.cfm.
2. Ervin B. Podgorsak, Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists
(Springer, 2010), Chap. 14.
3. One megaelectron-volt (MeV) refers to the maximum energy
of a photon produced by the process of bremsstrahlung when
an electron accelerated to a voltage of 1 mega-volt (MV) col-
lides with a metallic target.
4. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements,
NCRP Report 151 (2005).
5. It is possible to consider a distance of clearance between the
wall and the person, and it is usually assumed to be 30 cm.
6. NIST homepage, National Institute of Standards and Technol-
ogy, http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Xcom/html/xcom1.
html.
7. The sievert (Sv) is the unit of dose equivalent, which differs
from the absorbed dose (Gy) because it takes into account the
quality factors of radiation. However, for photons they are nu-
merically equal, 1 Gy = 1 Sv.
8. D0 can be defined by D0 = WUT. Here W (workload) is the ra-
diation output per week of the external beam x-ray source. For
example, for 50 patients per day, 5 days per week, and a dose of
4 Gy per patient, we have W = 50 patients/day 5 days/week
4 Gy/patient = 1000 Gy/ week. T (occupancy factor) is the frac-
tion of time that a person remains in the protected area while
the beam is on. U (use factor) is the fraction of time that the
beam is directed to barrier. So, for W = 1000 Gy/week, T = 0.5,
and U = 0:25, we have D0 = 125 Gy/week.
Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria-IRD/CNEN, Brazil;
edup2112@gmail.com