Shielding of medical imaging X-ray facilities: a simple and practical method

The most widely accepted method for shielding design of X-ray facilities is that contained in the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements Report 147 whereby the computation of the barrier thickness for primary, secondary and leakage radiations is based on the knowledge of the distances from the radiation sources, the assumptions of the clinical workload, and usage and occupancy of adjacent areas. The shielding methodology used in this report is complex. With this methodology, the shielding designers need to make assumptions regarding the use of the X-ray room and the adjoining areas. Different shielding designers may make different assumptions resulting in different shielding requirements for a particular X-ray room. A more simple and practical method is to base the shielding design on the shielding principle used to shield X-ray tube housing to limit the leakage radiation from the X-ray tube. In this case, the shielding requirements of the X-ray room would depend only on the maximum radiation output of the X-ray equipment regardless of workload, usage or occupancy of the adjacent areas of the room. This shielding methodology, which has been used in South Australia since 1985, has proven to be practical and, to my knowledge, has not led to excess shielding of X-ray installations.