Abstract
FASTSCAN (Canberra, Meriden, CT, USA), a standing-type whole-body counter with upper and lower NaI(Tl) detectors, has been mostly used to determine local residents’ level of internal contamination with 134/137Cs following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) disaster in 2011. In the present study, we performed Monte-Carlo simulations with age-specific mathematical human phantoms to investigate the counting efficiencies of the FASTSCAN counter for 131I thyroid measurements. As a result, although the lower detector had low sensitivity for 131I in the thyroids of the adult and 15 y phantoms as well as the 10 y phantom standing on a 30-cm-high stool, the response of this detector may be used as an indicator of surface contamination overlooked on a subject. The total counting efficiency investigated in this study was 0.017–0.018 (cps/Bq) among all age groups. Based on this sensitivity, the determination level for thyroid activity could be calculated to be ~300 Bq under the slightly elevated background radiation level observed after the FDNPP disaster.
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