DOSE DISTRIBUTION STUDIES OF A GAMMA INDUSTRIAL IRRADIATOR USING A PCCODE

This paper present a comparison between calculated and experimental ab sorbed dose values, for a typical product, irradiated in a Co-60 indus trial irradiator, at lNIN. Such industrial irradiator is two tiers and two layer systems, with overlapping product to source configuration; source activity was around 300 kCi. Calculated absorbed dose values we re obtained by FUGI code, running in a PC microcomputer. This code is based in a point kernel over the source area, by means of Gauss quadra ture technique, based in FUDGE-4A code. Build-up factors were estimate d by Goldstein and Wilkins factors for punctual sources, using Talylor 's approximation formula. Experimental dosimetry data of Petri dishes packages, with apparent density of 0.13 g/cm(3) data was performed usi ng red acrylic dosimeters, during irradiation; required minimum dose f or this material was 15 kGy. Absorbed dose data have shown good approx imation, particulary a 15% desviation of results from FUGI code. Howev er, this code can be used for rough calculation of irradiator paramete rs, before trying to use a more complex and time-consuming code, for d etailed analysis.