Assessment of radiation dose due to radioactive shipments- a sensitivity analysis

Cobalt 60 and iridium 192 are among the most commonly encountered sources in medical and industrial applications of radioisotopes. In addition, certain low specific activity materials need to be transported in connection with the programme of the Department of Atomic Energy. Transport of radioactive materials results in some dose to the transport workers and public. Computer codes are available for making a dose estimate. For this purpose input data have to be generated. The reliability of the computed results would depend upon the accuracy of the input. However, the task of generation of input data required for the computation could be taxing. So the relative importance of the various input parameters required for such dose estimation should be determined. To this end, a sensitivity analysis of the parameters was carried out. This exercise enables one to concentrate on improving the more important parameters with a view to improve the dose estimation and ultimately minimize the collective dose. (author). 3 refs., 2 tabs