The design of a low activity laboratory housing a whole body counter consisting of large plastic scintillators and the work towards a flexible Monte Carlo calibration

Abstract

137 Cs point source. The measured spectra were compared to Monte Carlo simulated spectra. The Monte Carlo code GATE v6.1 was used to simulate the energy deposition with the following optical transport in the scintillator material and detection of optical photons at the photocathode. MATLAB R2012a was used to calculate the multiplication in the photomultiplier tube. The results show the benefits of incorporating optical transport in the Monte Carlo simulations; the resolution in the simulated spectra changed drastically between energy deposition spectra and spectra of detected optical photons at the photocathode and; the measured spectra showed a source position dependence which was not noticed in the energy deposition spectra but first after the optical transport. A detailed description is given of the detector system and surrounding facilities because of their rather unique design.