THE GERMAN DOSE RATE MONITORING NETWORK AND IMPLEMENTED DATA HARMONIZATION TECHNIQUES.

Environmental radiation monitoring networks have been established in Europe and world-wide for the purpose of protecting population and environment against ionizing radiation. Some of these networks had been established during the cold war period and were improved after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Today, the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) operates an early warning network with roughly 1800 ambient dose equivalent rate (ADER) stations equally distributed over the German territory. The hardware and software of all network components are developed in-house allowing the continuous optimization of all relevant components. A probe characterization and quality assurance and control program are in place. Operational and technical aspects of the network and data harmonization techniques are described. The latter allows for calculating of the terrestrial and net ADER combined with uncertainties mainly from site specific effects. Harmonized data are finally used as input to the German emergency management system and the European radiological data exchange platform.

Estimating the terrestrial gamma dose rate by decomposition of the ambient dose equivalent rate.

An extensive network of dose rate monitoring stations continuously measures ambient dose rate across Europe, as part of the EURDEP system. Its purpose is early warning in radiological emergencies and documenting its temporal and spatial evolution. In normal conditions, when there is no contribution to the dose rate signal coming from fresh anthropogenic contamination, the data represent the radiation "background", i.e. the combined natural radiation and existing anthropogenic contamination (by global and Chernobyl fallout). These data are being stored, but have so far not been evaluated in depth, or used for any purpose. In the framework of the EU project 'European Atlas of Natural Radiation' the idea has emerged to exploit these data for generating a map of natural terrestrial gamma radiation. This component contributes to the total radiation exposure and knowing its geographical distribution can help establishing local 'radiation budgets'. A further use could be found in terrestrial dose rate as a proxy of the geogenic radon potential, as both quantities are related by partly the same source, namely uranium content of the ground. In this paper, we describe in detail the composition of the ambient dose equivalent rate as measured by the EURDEP monitors with respect to its physical nature and to its sources in the environment. We propose and compare methods to recover the terrestrial component from the gross signal. This requires detailed knowledge of detector response. We consider the probes used in the Austrian, Belgian and German dose rate networks, which are the respective national networks supplying data to EURDEP. It will be shown that although considerable progress has been made in understanding the dose rate signals, there is still space for improvement in terms of modelling and model parameters. An indispensable condition for success of the endeavour to establish a Europe-wide map of terrestrial dose rate background is progress in harmonising the European dose rate monitoring network.

INTERCAL: long-term inter-comparison experiment for dose rate and spectrometric probes.

The Schauinsland inter-calibration facility (INTERCAL) has been designed to enable long-term comparison experiments for 20 different dose rate probes from different networks. Two reference probes characterised by the European Radiation Dosimetry WG3 inter-calibration experiments in 2008 and 2009 have been installed at the INTERCAL facility. Additional instrumentation provides measured data of activity in air and nuclide-specific dose rate as well as environmental parameters such as air pressure, temperature, precipitation and soil moisture. Complementary to WG3 experiments, the INTERCAL platform is an ideal framework to investigate the long-term behaviour of dose rate probes and different spectrometry systems under environmental conditions. Two additional exposure experiments were performed in April 2009 and in May 2012.

Open-source hardware and software and web application for gamma dose rate network operation.

The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection operates a network of about 1800 gamma dose rate stations as a part of the national emergency preparedness plan. Each of the six network centres is capable of operating the network alone. Most of the used hardware and software have been developed in-house under open-source license. Short development cycles and close cooperation between developers and users ensure robustness, transparency and fast maintenance procedures, thus avoiding unnecessary complex solutions. This also reduces the overall costs of the network operation. An easy-to-expand web interface has been developed to make the complete system available to other interested network operators in order to increase cooperation between different countries. The interface is also regularly in use for education during scholarships of trainees supported, e.g. by the 'International Atomic Energy Agency' to operate a local area dose rate monitoring test network.

Comparative study of the PARK and ASTRAL post-accidental decision support software.

The French radioecological assessment model ASTRAL and the German model PARK have been developed to evaluate the radiological situation in the case of an accidental release of radionuclides and a widespread contamination of the environment. For decision makers it is of importance that the results on foodstuff contamination and on dose to humans are in fairly good agreement, when areas of the common border are affected. Therefore a comparative study has been done for two scenarios, assuming accidental releases on 1 June and 1 October. The study indicates that the models' structures and the transfer parameters are in good agreement. Only model principles for root vegetables are different in both models. Significant differences in results on the contamination of foodstuff and on dose to humans by ingestion are caused by different assumptions on dates of harvest and feeding methods of animals. A corresponding harmonization is essential with respect to decision making.

The use of isodose curves on radiographs and on CT scans in interstitial brachytherapy.

In brachytherapy an accurate dose distribution is usually not definable, and therefore not required. If flexible catheters are implanted, such as in head and neck cancer, resulting isodose curves only rarely fit exactly to radiographic films, and the target volume is not easily reconstructed. Usually no clear relationship exists between the three-dimensional (3D) dose distribution and target volume on the one hand and the two-dimensional (2D) radiographic films on the other. Dose distributions on radiographs are not sufficient to define the target absorbed dose and doses that critical areas will receive. A 3D imaging system, like computed tomographic (CT) scans, is needed in order to visualize underdosage inside the target volume and non-tolerable hot spots outside the tumour. Large-scale and expensive techniques exist to tackle these problems. Our inexpensive and verifiable approach to solve these problems combines localization radiographs with CT scans. Whereas tumour and critical areas are displayed on CT scans, flexible catheters loaded with dummy sources are best seen on radiographic films. With the help of a self-developed computer program, dose distributions are superimposed on CT scans. Doses to the target and critical organs are easily read and verified by external and internal detectors.

[Quality assurance in dynamic radiotherapy techniques]. / Qualitätssicherung für dynamische Bestrahlungstechniken.

Compared with conventional radiation treatment techniques, quality assurance for dynamic techniques has to consider additionally the variability of the movement parameters of the treatment unit. In this context the exactness and the reliability of the computer control are of special interest. In this paper the results of quality assurance for dynamic treatment techniques are reported. At first investigations concerning the reproducibility are carried out. Another test is the simulation of conventional moving beam techniques by external computer control. Further the differences between measured dose distributions of dynamic techniques and the distributions resulting from the sequence of fixed fields approximating these techniques are determined. Finally we compared measured and calculated dose distributions. The results of the investigations justify the introduction of dynamic radiation treatment techniques into clinical use.

[Assessment of radiotherapy plans: dose-volume histograms, integral effects and tumor control]. / Beurteilung von Bestrahlungsplänen: Volumen-Dosis-Histogramme, integrale Wirkung und Tumorkontrolle.

Suitable criteria are necessary for judgement and for comparison of treatment plans. These criteria must take into account radiobiological effects, i.e. tumor control and treatment complications. Quantitative evaluation of dose volume histograms gives helpful criteria for radiation treatment planning and for the choice between different treatment plans. For normal tissue and organs at risk it is shown, how to assign integral dose effect to inhomogeneous dose distribution. The evaluation algorithm is based on the assumption of a power law for volume dependence of dose effect. The algorithm is discussed for arbitrary form of dose effect function. Explicit evaluation is given in terms of the linear quadratic model. Hot spots influence integral dose effect much stronger than low dose level irradiation. For judgement of treatment plans, the significance of mean organ dose is only poor. Higher moments of dose distribution are more suitable. An effective tumor control probability is derived for judgement of tumor dose distribution. It is shown that tumor control is determined by mean dose and dose inhomogeneity in tumor volume. Control probability falls with increasing dose inhomogeneity in tumor region-in first order approximation characterized by variance of dose distribution. Using a clinical example, the evaluation rules for normal and tumor tissue are demonstrated. Two different treatment techniques are analyzed and discussed. Only numerical evaluation of dose volume histograms for lung region shows the better technique.