A Monte Carlo calibration of a whole body counter using the ICRP computational phantoms

A fast and versatile calibration of a whole body counter (WBC) is presented. The WBC, consisting of four large plastic scintillators, is to be used for measurements after accident or other incident involving ionising radiation. The WBC was calibrated using Monte Carlo modelling and the ICRP computational phantoms. The Monte Carlo model of the WBC was made in GATE, v6.2 (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) and MATLAB. The Monte Carlo model was verified by comparing simulated energy spectrum and simulated counting efficiency with experimental energy spectrum and experimental counting efficiency for high-energy monoenergetic gamma-emitting point sources. The simulated results were in good agreement with experimental results except when compared with experimental results from high dead-time (DT) measurements. The Monte Carlo calibration was made for a heterogeneous source distribution of (137)Cs and (40)K, respectively, inside the ICRP computational phantoms. The source distribution was based on the biokinetic model for (137)Cs.