Rad Pro Calculator Updates

[raymcginnis]

New updates are available for Rad Pro Calculator desktop and Pocket PC 2003.

New Version 2.46 for Rad Pro Calculator Desktop

I have access to a 6 MV linear accelerator CT scanner x-ray machine.  I compared my shielding calculations with real world measurements from that machine.  I found that I was off by a factor of 8 at high energies when using shielding added (much less at lower energies).  It all had to do with the energy that I was sending to the attenuation coefficient subroutines and the buildup subroutines.  I tweaked that code and now I am within 20% of real numbers for that machine.  It is always better advice for x-ray devices to measure it yourself, but sometimes software can help you get a feel for expected exposure rates.  With this update, we should all feel better about the ballpark size that Rad Pro Calculator for x-ray devices puts us in.  I also added attenuation due to air to the x-ray calculations, both with and without shielding added.

Downloads at: http://www.radprocalculator.com/RadProDownloads.aspx

New Version 1.3 for Rad Pro Calculator PDA (Pocket PC)

The code for calculating shield thickness, inputting initial and desired dose rates, is very complex, especially when using the buildup factor.  You need the shield thickness to calculate the buildup factor, but you are trying to calculate the shield thickness.  That is why other shielding codes don't give you that option.  The desktop and online versions have that calculation.  I had to figure out how to get that code into the PDA version.  In the meantime, I released version 1.2 for everyone to use.  It had all of the other gamma calculations.  I figured out the solution and the new version 1.3 now has the shielding thickness calculation added.  Also added were additional error checking subroutines.  Now you may no longer type anything into an answer box and you may only type numbers and needed characters into input boxes (you may not type and A but you may type an E for exponents).

Downloads at: http://www.radprocalculator.com/RadProPDA.aspx

[raymcginnis]

Rad Pro Calculator Desktop has gone from version 2.62 to 2.65 since my last post.  Minor revisions since 2.62 include:

Added new skins, including Vista style and 5 skins exclusively for Windows 2000 users.  Changed default skin.  Updated references to include Daniel Gollnick's book and the web page for fluence rate equations.  Added the shielding and buildup white paper to the "Help" menu.  Added Pa-233 to the Decay, Gamma and ALARA calculators.

Downloads at: http://www.radprocalculator.com/RadProDownloads.aspx

Also added Pa-233 to the Decay, Gamma and ALARA calculators of the online version and the Pocket PC versions.

Download at: http://www.radprocalculator.com/RadProPDA.aspx

[raymcginnis]

Version 2.70 of Rad Pro Calculator desktop has just been released.  It is a major upgrade.  Two new calculators were added that solve equations for minimum detectable activity (MDA), more recently termed minimum detectable concentration or minimum detectable contamination (MDC).  One calculator is for scalers, counters and static friskers in the timed count mode.  That calculator can do air sample, water and soil sample MDCs and much more.   The second calculator does MDC solutions for scan surveys with friskers in the analog count rate mode.  The scanner MDC calculator takes into account scan speed so that a faster scan produces a higher MDC.

Downloads are available at the usual page:

http://www.radprocalculator.com/RadProDownloads.aspx

Both calculators have also been added to the online version.