Radiological risk assessment for therapeutic use of I-131 based on 2D Monte Carlo analysis

Abstract

In recent years, use of 131I in therapeutic nuclear medicine has been increased rapidly due to the increased detection rate of thyroid cancers. The associated radiological risks of workers and other individuals are affected by several uncertain variables such as radioactivity used, distance, time and frequency of exposure situations and the probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is often used in the risk assessments. The two-dimensional Monte Carlo Analysis (2D MCA), which is one of the advanced approaches for PRA, is applied to assess risk associated with the therapeutic uses of 131I in Korea. Exposures to workers during inpatient care and to members of the public, specifically family members, after release of patients were considered in both normal and accidental situations. In order to identify important variables to the risks, sensitivity analyses were performed as well.