LAUSR

The majority of the radiation accidents with early acute clinical effects were associated with the orphan sources used in industrial and medical facilities. These accidents involved members of general public, who were entirely unaware of the exposure to the radiation. In such situations, the exposure commonly occurs when the source is in contact with a body of a victim, primarily located in pockets of clothing or in hands. In this research, the average absorbed doses in internal organs, skin and tissues close to the source were assessed using the phantom modeling of contact human exposure by the sealed 192Ir, 137Cs and 60Co gamma sources. The results allow estimating the RBE-weighted absorbed dose values in organs and tissues to assess the possibility and severity of deterministic medical effects caused by the exposure and to compare them with the reference levels established by IAEA for performing the protective and medical actions.