Acta Radiologica: Therapy, Physics, Biology

ISSN: 0567-8064 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ionc17

60
Attenuation of Gamma Radiation from Co,
137 192 226
Cs, Ir, and Ra in Various Materials Used in
Radiotherapy

R. Thoraeus

60 137 192
To cite this article: R. Thoraeus (1965) Attenuation of Gamma Radiation from Co, Cs, Ir,
226
and Ra in Various Materials Used in Radiotherapy, Acta Radiologica: Therapy, Physics, Biology,
3:2, 81-86, DOI: 10.3109/02841866509133082

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.3109/02841866509133082

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 ACTA R A D I O L O G I C A
O F F I C I A L O R G A N OF T H E R A D I O L O G I C A L S O C I E T I E S OF
DENMARK, F I N L A N D , NORWAY AND SWEDEN

Vol. 3 New series 1965

Fasc. 2 THERAPY PHYSICS BIOLOGY April

ATTENUATION O F GAMMA RADIATION FROM

6oCo, 13'Cs, '""I, AND 226RaI N VARIOUS
MATERIALS USED I N RADIOTHERAPY

R. THORAEUS

The attenuation of gamma radiation in different materials is of general

interest in many kinds of radiotherapy and clinical radiophysics work. The
materials used may be broadly divided into three groups: ( I ) water and
tissue-equivalent materials, (2) conveniently available metals with properties
that make them suitable for HVL measurements, and (3) heavy metals suit-
able for wedges, for compensating and flattening filters, and for radiation
protection.
Group (1) is of main importance in clinical radiophysics work, such as in
experimental studies of the dose distribution obtained by different irradiation
techniques, and for the production of isodose diagrams. The human body has
then to be substituted by special 'phantom bodies' either made of a homoge-
neous, tissue-equivalent material, or produced by moulding such a material
on a skeleton to achieve an anatomically correct imitation of the human body.
The materials in group (2) must be non-corrosive and commercially avail-
From the Institute of Radiophysics (Director: Prof. R. Sievert), King Gustav V Jubilee
Clinic, Karolinska Sjukhuset, Stockholm, Sweden. Presented at the Meeting of the Nordic
Society of Medical Radiology at Helsingfors, Finland, in June 1964. Submitted for publi-
cation 25 June 1964.

6453004. Acta Radioiogica Ther a p y Physics Biology V o l . 3 (1965) 81

82 R. THORAEUS

able in a pure state, at low or very moderate cost and in convenient dimensions.
The materials most commonly used are aluminium and copper; lead, although
in general too soft for the purpose, is nevertheless sometimes employed,
Heavy metals, such as lead, tungsten and uranium, are mainly used for
source heads, and local screening of the radiation in desired directions.
They are, however, too expensive for protective barriers, such as walls and
flooring, in which instances concrete and the still better iron-ore concrete are
mostly used. Lead can to some extent be used in special cases when additional
protection is required, for example in doors. The attenuation of gamma
radiation from radium, 6oCoand 13'Cs in iron-ore concrete was discussed in a
previous paper (THORAEUS 1960) to which the reader is referred for further
information. Stainless steel, though not a very heavy material, is frequently
used for various parts of equipment, and was therefore included in the study.
Tungsten has a density of about 19.3 and a melting-point of about 3 370
degrees centigrade. I t is technically produced by pressing the metallic powder
into rods. These are at first fired, then sintered at a temperature close to the
melting-point, and finally mechanically treated by hot swaging in a high speed
hammer machine. Such pure tungsten is so hard that it cannot be machined
by edge tools. Within certain limits, however, it can be brought into desired
shapes by high temperature hammering, or cold grinding. This tungsten
material is not used for radiotherapeutic purposes, except as anode material in
certain accelerator tubes for the production of roentgen radiation.
There is however another material called tungsten heavy-alloy, which is
produced from tungsten powder with a small percentage of a metallic adhesive,
usually copper and nickel. This material has a density of up to about 18, and
can be machined by all types of tempered-steel edge tools. As the price per unit
weight is 50 to 60 times higher than that of lead, the employment of this ma-
terial is mainly confined to source heads and applicators in which the required
screening effect has to be obtained with small dimensions. The tungsten
heavy-alloy was included in the present investigation.
To be reasonably defined, the attenuation has to be referred to a collimated
narrow-beam geometry ; the experimental arrangements are therefore briefly
described in the following.
The attenuation measurements of the gamma radiation from 137Csand W o
were made by the sources and collimating equipment described in a recent
paper (THORAEUS 1962). The collimator used gives a beam cross-section of
about 10 cm in diameter at a focal distance of 100 cm. The 137Cs source is
about 10 mm in diameter, and the 6oCosource about 6 mm.
The l9zIr source was an activated iridium wire, 5 mm in length, 0.5 mm in
diameter, and encapsulated in aluminium of 1.3 mm thickness. The attenua-
 GAMMA RADIATION ATTENUATION IN VARIOUS MATERIALS 83

Radium cassette, with radium containers (black spheres)

arranged symmetrically as a hexagon. The circles indi-
cate spare holes to enable a n increase of the number
of radium containers to a maximum of 19 within the
same source diameter of 34 mm.

tion measurements were carried out about 80 days after the activation, the
half-life being 74.4 days.
The lSzIrgamma radiation spectrum is complex and wide. It comprises at
least 17 lines of energies from 136 to 1 066 keV; some of these contribute,
however, very little to the total emission. The three lines 296, 308 and 317
keV are responsible for 61.6 %, the line 468 keV for 23.1 yo, and the three
lines 588, 605, and 613 keV for 10.6 yo,i. e. in all 95.3 yo of the emission. An
effective energy of 380 keV may be calculated from all the spectral lines and
their percentage contribution.
A special conical lead collimator, about 170 mm long, has been constructed
for the radium source. It has a small recess at its base, in which an aluminium
cassette containing 10 short radium containers is positioned. These containers
are of the type that has been introduced and described by SIEVERT (1932),
and were previously used in so-called teleradium units; each contains about
50 mCi, and the radium substance enclosure is double-walled, consisting of
+
0.35 mm Au 0.3 mm Pt, and equivalent to 0.62 mm Pt. The external dimen-
sions are: 5.4 mm (diameter) and 10 mm (length).
The cassette consists of a disc-shaped central body of aluminium, 53 mm in
84 R. THORAEUS

Table
Half-value layers in millimeters of various materials for 4 dzferent gamma radiation sources

Material Density *OCo 137cs l82Ir2 226Ra1 HVL-Cs

HVL-CO
First Sec- HVL First Sec- HVL First Sec- First Sec-
HVL ond NBS HVL ond NBS HVL ond HVL ond
HVL HVL HVL HVL

Water 1.00 108 109 108 82 82 81 63 68 106 119 0.75

Mix D 0.98 112 113 - 80 80 - 63 69 109 120 0.72
Alderson
material 0.99 117 118 - 89 88 - - - 111 123 0.76
Presdwood 1.03 121 121 - - - - - - - - -
Polystyrene 1.05 107 107 - 80 81 - 63 67 105 117 0.75
Plexiglas 1.18 96.5 96 - 71 70 - 56 58 93 100 0.73
Aluminium 2.70 46.5 46.5 46.7 34.5 34.5 34.0 27 28.5 43.4 49.4 0.73
Stainless
steel 7.89 16.5 16.4 - 11.9 11.8 - 8.8 9.2 15.4 16.5 0.72
Copper 8.90 14.8 14.8 14.9 10.7 10.7 10.7 7.6 8.0 13.6 15.5 0.72
Lead 11.25 10.5 10.6 10.5 5.5 5.6 5.68 2.2 2.8 8.0 11.0 0.54
Tungsten
alloy 17.74 6.85 6.92 - 4.0 4.1 - 1.7 2.4 5.5 7.1 0.58
Uranium 18.76 5.63 5.67 5.66 2.85 2.90 2.89 - - 4.2 5.9 0.51
1 Encapsulated in 0.35 Au +
0.30 Pt, equivalent to 0.62 mm Pt
Encapsulated in 1.3 mm A1

diameter and 10 mm thick, in which holes have been drilled to receive the
radium containers. Each side of the body is covered by a 1 mm thick disc of
the same material and diameter, and kept in position by three screws. The
external thickness of the cassette is thus 12 mm.
The cassette body is schematically shown in the figure. The radium con-
tainers are arranged in hexagonal symmetry, forming a 'source' of maximum
34 mm in diameter. The number of radium containers may be increased
to 19, corresponding to about 950 mCi, without increasing the diameter.
The radium collimator is inserted into a cylindrical lead block of adequate
protection value. Its collimating opening is closed by an easily removable,
full-length lead plug.
Preliminary studies of the attenuation of gamma radiation from the I3'Cs
and 6oCosources were 'reported in previous papers (THORAEUS 1961, 1962).
The studies have later been repeated and considerably extended and now
comprise attenuation of gamma radiation from the four above-mentioned
radioisotopes in 12 different materials.
Each beam of gamma radiation was attenuated by the different materials
 GAMMA RADIATION ATTENUATION I N VARIOUS MATERIALS 85

down to at least 20 %. The resulting percentage attenuation values were at

first plotted against the corresponding thicknesses in a diagram, and the first
and second half-value layers were then obtained by interpolation.
The results obtained are collected in the Table, which shows the first and
second half-value layers in millimeters. For comparison the table also includes
the first half-value layers of water and pure metals calculated from the NBS
Circular 583 (GRODSTEIN 1957).
The attenuation of monoenergetic radiation in water enables the calculation
of half-value layers and their plotting against the radiation energy in a diagram.
By interpolation of the experimental half-value layers of the iridium and radium
gamma radiations in the diagram, we get 380 kV and 1.15 MV, respectively.
The ratios between the half-value layers for 137Cs and 6oCogamma radia-
tions are given in the last column of the Table. I t appears that this ratio is
0.72 to 0.76 for materials of low atomic numbers but only 0.51 to 0.58 for
materials of high atomic numbers. This verifies that shielding and collimation
by high atomic number elements is relatively more effective for the 137Cs
gamma radiation than for the G0Coradiation.
I t is further of interest to note that the first half-value layer obtained with
radium gamma radiation is somewhat smaller than that of the cobalt radiation.
This shows that the radium radiation components of lower energy than cobalt
predominate at such a moderate attenuation. With attenuation factors
corresponding to the second half-value layer, and factors of importance in
radiation protection techniques, the radium radiation components of higher
energy than that of cobalt become predominant; the material thickness
required to give the same attenuation factor thus becomes greater than that
of the cobalt radiation (THORAEUS 1960). It is found, from the attenuation
curve of the radium gamma radiation in copper, however, that a first half-
value layer equal to that of the 6oCo gamma radiation (14.8 mm Cu) can be
obtained by adding a filter of 6.5 mm copper, but the exposure rate is then
reduced by about 30 per cent.
Plexiglas and presdwood are frequently used as materials for homogeneous
phantoms. I t appears, however, from the table that the attenuation power
of these materials is different from that of water.
The soft-tissue equivalent material used by Alderson Research Laboratories
to produce average-man equivalent phantoms was included for comparison.
This material is said to consist of a thermosetting iso-cyanate rubber, physically
and chemically adjusted to an effective atomic number of 7.30 and a density
of 0.985, but the attenuation power is different from that of water. In fact,
polystyrene and mix D show the greatest water-equivalent attenuation power
of the materials investigated.
86 R. THORAEUS

SUMMARY
The attenuation of gamma radiation from 13'Cs, 6oCo,226Ra,and lg21rhas been studied
experimentally, using narrow-beam geometry, in 12 different materials of interest in radio-
therapy and in clinical radiophysics work. The results given are the first and second half-
value layers.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Der Schwachungsquotient der y-Strahlung von la7Cs,6oCo,226Raund lszIr wurde experi-
mentell fur 12 Stoffe, die von radiotherapeutischem oder medizinisch-physikalischem Interesse
sind, am engen Strahlenbundel ermittelt. Die Resultate werden fur die erste und zweite
Halbwertschicht angegeben.

L'atttnuation des rayonnements gamma de 137Cs,6oCo,226Raet lS2Ira ktt ktudiCe expkri-

mentalement avec un faisceau ttroit sur 12 matkriaux diffkrents qui prksentent un intkret en
radiothtrapie et en radiophysique clinique. Les rCsultats publiCs sont les premitres et deuxit-
mes couches de demi-absorption.

REFERENCES
GRODSTEIN G. W.: X-ray attenuation coefficients from 10 KeV to 100 MeV. National Bureau
of Standards Circular 583, Washington 1957.
SIEVERT R. : Eine Methode zur Messung von Rontgen-Radium-U1trastrahlungnebst einige
Untersuchungen uber die Anwendung derseIben in der Physik und der Medizin. Acta
radiol. (1932) Suppl. No. 14, p. 65.
THORAEUS R. : Iron-ore concrete in radiation protection. Acta radiol. 54 (1960), 410.
- Cesium 137 and its gamma radiation in teleradiotherapy. Acta radiol. 55 (1961), 385.
- The Swedish gamma radiation standard laboratory. Acta radiol. 58 (1962), 445.