Evaluation of a commercial software package's ability to calibrate an in vivo counter for emergency response

A commercial detector calibration package has been assessed for its use to calibrate the Human Monitoring Laboratory's Portable Whole Body Counter that is used for emergency response. The advantage of such a calibration software is that calibrations can be derived very quickly once the model has been designed. The commercial package's predictions were compared to experimental point source data and to predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. It was found that the software adequately predicted the counting efficiencies of a point source geometry to values derived from Monte Carlo simulations and experimental work. Both the standing and seated counting geometries agreed sufficiently well that the commercial package could be used in the field.