TÍTULO DO TRABALHO NOMES DOS AUTORES ENDEREÇOS E DOS AUTORES INTRODUTION Gammacell 220 Series 39 is a irradiation device purchased by CDTN/CNEN in the 60s. The device contains an array of 54 rods containing sealed pallets of 60 Co that yeld gamma radiation within an cylindrical irradiation chamber of 15x21cm, diameter x height. Now as we have spent about 10 half-lives of 60 Co, dose rate is reduced by a factor of about However the arrangement is still useful for irradiation of low doses for many applications. A map of the distribution of doses (Fig. 1) was shipped with the product since its acquisition. Fig. 1 - GammaCell certified isodoses (1962) Fig. 3 - TLD´s sample-holder diagram. Fig. 4 -TLD experimental doses. Arrows A and B indicate reference directions. Fig. 5 - Measured doses with Fricke dosimeters at the center of the exposure chamber. Fig. 2 - Frontal cut-away view of GammaCell 220 (left) and top view of sources (right). Fig. 6 - Certified isodoses (1962), MCNP, TLD´s and FRICKE normalized doses. However as the manufacturer no longer exists, there was never an update of these data. Because of the need to update data, new measurements of the field distribution of doses has been performed with FRICKE and TLD detectors. A simulation study of distribution of doses in the arrangement using the Monte Carlo method was also done and all these results was compared with the information of the certificate of the original dose. METHODOLOGY MCNP SIMULATION Gammacell 220 simulations were carried out by the MCNP-4B radiation transport code. The irradiator geometry was simulated to reproduce the experimental setup. Fig. 2 shows the simulated geometry. The input file contains 240 surfaces and 90 cells. There are Co cylindrical sources of cm radius and cm length doubly encapsulated in aluminum and stainless steel tubes. Radioactive decay was taken into account in the simulation, and Ni concentration was introduced in the sources material definition. Sources are separated from the exposure chamber by an aluminum and stainless steel shell of 0.2 cm thick with 7.5 and 7.7 cm inner radius, respectively. Outside the sources, a structure constituted by a lead shield was designed. The sources were simulated using the sdef card, where the photon emission starting points are centered in the 54 cylinders. The extension and emission spectrum was defined as a Maxwellian distribution, together with the efficiency specification. The two energy peaks of 60 Co were considered. The tally cards used were F4 type, being modified by a dose function using the de and df cards. A disc shape acrylic sample-holder was constructed to accommodate 49 TLD-800, as shown in Fig. 3. Each TLD crystal has approximately 3×3×1 mm 3. The sample-holder was loaded with the TLD´s and accommodated in the GammaCell exposure chamber at half height. The set was irradiated with a nominal dose of 4.0 Gy. The nominal dose value in the experiments corresponds to the expected dose calculated with the certificated dose rate and the radioactive decay law. The TLD´s analyses were done in a Harshaw TLD reader model This procedure was repeated four times. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS TLD DOSIMETRY TLD´s results are shown in Fig. 4. Doses were normalized in relation to the central position dose. TLD´s results indicate that along the B direction there is a greater symmetry in the doses distribution than along the A direction. This asymmetry was not expected considering the manufacturer. Isodose certificate. Fricke dosimeters results at the central volume of the irradiation chamber for different doses are shown in Fig. 5. Experimental FRICKE values are 7% higher than nominal values, in average. CONCLUSIONS The simulation results showed a good agreement with the GammaCell 220 certificate, and except in one position (9% relative error), the relative error with the experimental data is less than 3%, indicating that the simulation methodology can be used as a routine predictive tool of irradiation planning. Dose evaluation is generally referred to a mass of air that occupies the entire chamber of gamma irradiator facilities. This routine does not take into account the peculiarities of each sample, especially, composition and density, which are essential parameters to determining the actual accumulated energy dose. The MCNP code developed here can also use in improvement of irradiation planning. MCNP results were compared with the Fricke and TLD results. Fig. 6 plots GammaCell 220 certified isodoses (1962) and MCNP, TLD´s and FRICKE results of normalized doses in function of the radius. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FRICKE DOSIMETRY The Fricke dosimeter is a chemical dosimeter consisting of an aqueous solution of sulfuric acid and ferrous sulfate in the composition: 1 mM FeSO N H2SO4 + 1 mM NaCl. The absorbed dose is determined from the yield of ferrous ions, determined by spectrophotometers. The Fricke dosimeters were placed in cylindrical bottles with internal dimensions of 40 mm in height and 10 mm in diameter. Five measurements were performed with the dosimeters placed in the central portion of the chamber, with nominal doses of 50, 90, 150, 200 and 250 Gy. Subsequently seventeen samples were irradiated in a circular arrangement at the half height: eight samples were placed at maximum radius of the exposure chamber, other eight in half of the radius, and one in the center. This sample set was irradiated with nominal dose of 160 Gy TLD DOSIMETRY FRICKE DOSIMETRY MCNP RESULTS LOGOMARCAS DAS EMPRESAS OU INSTITUTOS DE PESQUISA OU UNIVERSIDADES E ORGÃOS PATROCINADORES