https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04657-z
Regular Article
Environmental impact assessment of radioactive gaseous releases from modern accelerators: case studies of low- and medium-energy regime
1
Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), Rome, Italy
2
Polytechnic University of Milan, Milan, Italy
3
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Rome, Italy
4
European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy
5
Saint Camillus International, University of Health Sciences, Rome, Italy
f
marco.darienzo@unicamillus.org
Received:
20
July
2023
Accepted:
2
November
2023
Published online:
12
December
2023
The operation of particle and ion accelerators involves the activation of the air in the bunker where the equipment is located and then the planned release into the atmosphere of radioactive effluents in gaseous form. The evaluation of the impact on the population of these effluents requires the knowledge of several parameters, first of all the source term. To this aim, analytical algorithms are presented for evaluating the air activation in rooms hosting different types of modern accelerators, in particular an ion accelerator for radiotherapy, accelerators for fusion neutron sources and linear accelerators for radiotherapy (above 10 MV). A simplified model is used to assess the thermal neutron flux (mainly when a refined Monte Carlo model for calculations is not available), which is responsible for the production of airborne 41Ar, the major concern for environmental contamination. The concentration of this contaminant in the bunker and the related release in the environment are evaluated considering a ventilation system that ensures a proper number of air changes. To verify compliance with the environmental standards, screening dose calculation factors from international reports are employed.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
