Building-transmission factors

Parametric representations (called the nine-parameter formula) of the measurements of the radiation transmission through Japanese house models at the BREN reactor and 60Co experiments are used to correct the free-in-air (FIA) T65 dose values for buildings shielding in the built-up residential areas at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The accuracy of transmission factors derived from the nine-parameter formula impact the accuracy of the final-exposure dose estimates in the same manner as the accuracy of weapon yield and FIA radiation transport. A preliminary investigation of the accuracy of these transmission factors, sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency, has focused primarily on the adequacy of the Bare Reactor Experiment, Nevada (BREN) radiation environments for producing transmission factor data relevant to the situations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, the radiation equivalency of house models used at BREN to Japanese house models and the physical basis for the nine-parameter formula have been studied. This investigation has concluded that the average gamma-ray transmission factors based on the nine-parameter formula are probably too high by about a factor of 2. The large discrepancy between the nine-parameter formula and recent estimates results from the apparent failure to properly account for the large gamma-ray dose component caused by capture gamma rays produced in the house walls by the large neutron flux present at BREN