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Abstract: The angular distribution of photon energy spectra emitted from an I-125 brachytherapy source was measured using a specially designed jig in the range of ±70° in the plane of the long axis of the source. It is important to investigate the angular dependence of photon emissions from these sources for the calibration of the air kerma rate. The results show that the influence of the distributions between 0° and ±8° is small enough to allow a calibration using current primary instruments which have a large entrance window. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Calibrations of instrument efficiency of surface contamination meters are usually made with extended reference sources which are standardized in terms of 2π surface β-particle emission rates from the source surface including backscattered particles. Extended sources supplied from various metrology institutes or calibration laboratories, but the source-types such as structure, preparation method, backing and covering materials vary between manufacturers. In this work first we show how the calibration results are dependent on the source type. Second, in order to clarify the possible reason of such discrepancy, we examined the isotropy of β-particle fluences by the use of a proportional counter and also observed the angular dependence of β-particle spectra by the use of small plastic scintillation spectrometer, where the source mount can rotate relative to the detector window at various obliquities. The discrepancy in the instrument-calibration of surface contamination meters, which are mainly used under the conditions of large source-to-detector geometry, can be explained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]