Californium-252 line sources: experimental verification of depth dose data using NTA films and dosage tables based on...

Californium-252 promises to be an effective radium substitute in brachytherapy. In certain situations, such as cancer of the uterus, the dose rate near a linear source may be of interest. Paterson and Parker have tabulated the number of milligram hours for various active lengths of radium sources to give 1000 rad at different distances from the centre of the source. This paper presents similar results for Cf-252 (microgram hours to give 1000 rad neutron dose). The paper also reports the results of experimental measurements of neutron depth dose distributions for both single line sources and arrays. Kodak NTA films and a phantom were used for the study. The experimental results are found to agree well with the theoretically predicted results.