V Huang/R Corns Internal shielding for electrons 9 Feb 2010

Internal shielding for electrons

An electron beam of energy E0 is incident upon tissue of thickness dtissue. A piece of lead,
is wrapped in aluminium and wax is placed as an internal shield for the electron beam.

Note: deq is a tissue equivalent thickness of Al/wax. Al is 2.7 times as dense as water and
1 cm of Al is equivalent to 2.7 cm of water.

Two quantities are of interest:

1. The thickness of lead required to stop the beam,
2. The thickness of Al/wax required preventing backscattered radiation from
overdosing the tissue upstream.

Lead thickness
The thickness of lead is determined from the incident energy upon the lead (EPb):
E
d Pb = 1 + Pb (in mm)
2
(ref Khan p 392 buried in the text) The additional 1 mm in the above equation
compensates for any irregularities in lead thickness.

The incident energy on the lead depends upon the incident energy on the tissue, the depth
in tissue and the equivalent thickness of Al/wax (deq):
E Pb = E0 − 2
MeV
cm
( )
× d tissue + d eq .

Aluminium/Wax thickness
The thickness of Al/wax is found iteratively or by making a good guess and verifying it
meets the necessary requirements. The problem here is the curve to determine the
thickness of wax depends upon the incident energy on the lead, which in turn depends
upon the thickness of wax.

Using Figure 14.40 from Khan, the thickness of Al/wax can be determined to reduce the
backscatter to < 10%.
V Huang/R Corns Internal shielding for electrons 9 Feb 2010

Example:
A lesion is being treated with 6 MeV electrons. An internal shield is required. Given the
lesion + bolus is 1.5 cm thick, calculate the required thickness of lead and Al/wax for the
internal shield.

Solution:
• We can solve iteratively with an initial guess deq = 0 cm. The energy incident on
MeV
the Pb: E Pb = 6 MeV − 2 ×1.5 cm = 3 MeV .
cm
• From Fig 14.40, to reduce the backscatter to < 10% we need deq= 8 mm. This
MeV
reduces the energy on Pb to: E Pb = 6 MeV − 2 ×2.3 cm =1.4 MeV .
cm
• From Fig 14.40, we would now require deq= 5 mm. The incident energy on Pb is
MeV
now: E Pb = 6 MeV − 2 ×2.0 cm = 2 MeV and the required equivalent
cm
thickness is about 7 mm.

We could continue, but the uncertainties in the interpolation of Fig14.40 will outweigh
any accuracy better than 5 to 7 mm thickness. Let’s be conservative and take ~ 7 mm. If
the wax is 1 mm thick, this would require 2 mm of Al to get an equivalent thickness of
6.4 mm.

2 ( MeV )
The thickness of Pb required is d Pb = +1 = 2 mm
2

The overall thickness of the insert is (both sides of the Pb is covered in Al/wax): 2 mm of
wax + 4 mm of Al + 2 mm of Pb = 8 mm.