Estimating external exposure from different source geometries in soil contaminated by gamma-ray emitting radionuclides: A computational model combining Monte Carlo simulation and mathematical transformation

Abstract

A computational model is developed to estimate the external exposure to an arbitrary scenario describing the spatial distribution of the source in a contaminated soil by gamma-ray emitting radionuclides released after nuclear activities. This model welds together a Monte Carlo simulation approach and a mathematical transformation based on Tait–Bryan angles formalism. For Monte Carlo simulation, a source depth dependent optimized geometry describing a semi-infinite soil-cover-air medium of propagation is mathematically derived based on the physical attenuation of the gamma ray in matter. For each primary energy of interest, the proposed mathematical transformation is applied to the output of the Monte Carlo simulation to define the overlapping region between the contaminated soil volume and the proposed optimized volume. This approach made it possible to estimate the human external exposure associated with the scenario under investigation. Several scenarios were studied. The flux energy distribution of the detected radiation and the corresponding dose quantities are calculated. A benchmarking test with a direct Monte Carlo simulation and a comparison with published results in the literature show good agreement validating therefore the presented model.