| The x ray leakage from the housing of a therapy x ray source is regulated to be <0.1% of the useful beam exposure at a distance of 1 m from the source. The x ray leakage in the backward direction has been measured from linacs operating at 4, 6, 10, 15, and 18 MV using a 100 cm3 ionization chamber and track-etch detectors. The leakage was measured at nine different positions over the rear wall using a 3 x 3 matrix with a 1 m separation between adjacent positions. In general, the leakage was less than the canonical value, but the exact value depends on energy, gantry angle, and measurement position. Leakage at 10 MV for some positions exceeded 0.1%.;Electrons with energy greater than about 9 MeV have the ability to produce neutrons. Neutron leakage has been measured around the head of electron accelerators at a distance 1 m from the target at 0°, 46°, 90°, 135°, and 180° azimuthal angles; for electron energies of 9, 12, 15, 16, 18, and 20 MeV and 10, 15, and 18 MV x ray photon beam, using a neutron bubble detector of type BD-PND and using Track-Etch detectors. The highest neutron dose equivalent per unit electron dose was at 0° for all electron energies. The neutron leakage from photon beams was the highest between all the machines.;Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) delivery consists of a summation of small beamlets having different weights that make up each field. A linear accelerator room designed exclusively for IMRT use would require different, probably lower, tenth value layers (TVL) for determining the required wall thicknesses for the primary barriers. The first, second, and third TVL of 60Co gamma rays and photons from 4, 6, 10, 15, and 18 MV x ray beams by concrete have been determined and modeled using a Monte Carlo technique (MCNP version 4C2) for cone beams of half-opening angles of 0°, 3°, 6°, 9°, 12°, and 14°. |
