MicroShield® is a comprehensive photon/gamma ray shielding and dose assessment program that is widely used for designing shields, estimating source strength from radiation measurements, minimizing exposure to people, and teaching shielding principles.

MicroShield® is useful to health physicists, waste managers, design engineers, and radiological engineers and only requires a basic knowledge of radiation and shielding principles.

MicroShield® is fully interactive and utilizes extensive input error checking. Integrated tools provide graphing of results, material and source file creation, source inference with decay (dose-to-Ci calculations accounting for decay and daughter buildup), projection of exposure rate versus time as a result of decay, access to material and nuclide data, and decay heat calculations. 

MicroShield's® Features include:

1. Sixteen geometries that accommodate offset dose points and as many as ten standard shields plus source self-shielding and cylinder cladding.
2. The geometry display for entry is re-scaled as dimensions are entered. Dimensional data are accepted in meters, centimeters, feet, or inches. Display can be rotated in 3-D for viewing and printing.
3. Library data (radionuclides, attenuation, buildup, and dose conversion) reflect standard data from RSICC, ANS, and ICRP.
4. Provides the ability to access and use the Optional ICRP-38 Nuclide Library. This library, which is significantly larger than the standard library, is currently being distributed with RadDecay® 4.0. Microshield® will keep track of which library is used an analysis or the creation of a source file.
5. Buildup and uncollided results are both automatically and simultaneously calculated.
6. Provides the ability to design and save up to eight custom materials for any case to add to the twelve built-in materials.
7. Sources may be created and saved and moved among cases, either as nuclides or energies, and as concentrations or totals. Several photon grouping methods are provided including custom (user defined).
8. Source decay can be calculated with daughter products generated.
9. As many as twenty-five energy groups (with an energy range of 15 keV to 10 MeV) may be used; input may be concentration or totals.
10. Sensitivity of exposure rate to time, source dimension, shield thickness, or distance can be investigated. Integration conversion verification can be conducted with sensitivity to quadrature order.
11. Decay heat/energy can be calculated.
12. Improved flexibility for users to control input and output units, case file saving, printing, and emailing, export of results including graphs to office documents.
13. Provides the ability to define multiple (up to six) dose points for a case for almost all geometries. 
14. Provides the ability to operate on multiple cases simultaneously.
15. Improved handling of graphics including displayed and printed graphs as well as the case model.
    

Geometry - Source Configurations Included:

• Point
• Line
• Disk
• Rectangular Area - Vertical
• Rectangular Area - Horizontal
• Sphere
• Cylinder Volume - Side Shields
• Cylinder Volume - End Shields
• Cylinder Surface - Internal Dose Point
• Cylinder Surface - External Dose Point
• Annular Cylinder - Internal Dose Point
• Annular Cylinder - External Dose Point
• Rectangular Volume
• Truncated Cone
• Infinite Plane
• Infinite Slab
  

MicroShield 8.02 Features:

• Microsoft Vista® compatibility
• Ability to utilize international numerical formats (decimal commas, etc.)
• Improved report generating capabilities
• Ability to export results using Microsoft Office® 2003 or 2007
• Increased the number of constituents in a custom material to 30
• Includes custom materials based on ANSI/ANS-6.4.2-2006
• Improved Source Inference and Exposure Rate Tools
• Increased the maximum number of custom materials allowed (200)

MicroShield 8.02 Version History:

• Minor adjustments were made to the ini files to improve the installation and folder access process
• Corrected dimensional checks for the annular external dose source
• Corrected the sensitivity graph display for certain sources
• Corrected some child form menus that referenced version 7 and ownership information
• Minor correction was made to decay routine – where in some cases, it did not decay daughters at all
• Corrected inability to delete numbers from nuclide grid control
• Made other small changes to improve behavior of nuclide grid control
• Corrected the total activity values for “Assumed with Buildup”
• Increased the number of figures to the right of the decimal place by one (e.g. X.XXXX)
• Corrected legacy issue with display of improper source units for specific activity
• Corrected Y dimensional value shown in report
• Zinc was missing from element list if sorted alphabetically
• Corrected Custom Material Tool in using international formatted numbers
• Corrected printing issue (run time error) related to the use of international numbers
• Corrected print error in batch tool
• Batch tool now displays HTML reports and properly saves case files

ICRP Publication 74

ICRP Publication 74 (Conversion Coefficients for Use in Radiological Protection Against External Radiation, Annals of ICRP Volume 26/3) provides an extensive and authoritative set of data linking the operational quantities defined by ICRU with the dosimetric and protection quantities defined by ICRP. The operational quantities provide a satisfactory basis for most of the measurements for radiation protection against external radiations. In those cases where it is not so, the data given in the report provides a basis for designing special measurement programs, properly interpreting their results and relating them to the protection quantities.

The dose conversion coefficients for gamma ray radiation were added for the following organs:

1. Bladder dose
2. Bone (red marrow) dose
3. Bone (surface) dose
4. Breast female dose
5. Colon dose
6. Gonads female (ovaries) dose
7. Gonads male (testes) dose
8. Gonads dose
9. Liver dose
10. Lung dose
11. Esophagus dose
12. Remainder dose
13. Skin dose
14. Stomach dose
15. Thyroid dose
16. Effective dose
17. Eye lens dose
18. Thymus dose
19. Uterus

The dose results for these organs are accessible via the dose equivalent report from the MicroShield® case screen.

Microsoft Vista® Compatibility

MicroShield® is now fully compatible with the following operating systems: Microsoft 2000®, Microsoft XP®, and Microsoft Vista®.

Enhanced Exporting of Results

You can now save all general results as a Microsoft Word®, Microsoft Excel®, HTML, or text files. MicroShield® now supports both Microsoft Office® 2003 and 2007. Results that are saved as any of the first three file types are formatted and color coded for easy readability. The main results, results with and without buildup, and linear coefficients can all be saved out in the above formats.

Material Improvements

MicroShield® has incorporated several improvements to the material selection process. Custom materials can now include up to 30 individual constituents to increase the fidelity of custom materials modeled in the software. As with previous versions, MicroShield® will still calculate the necessary attenuation data and buildup factors for these custom materials. In addition, MicroShield® will now allow a custom material library of up to 200 custom materials to increase flexibility and customization.

MicroShield® now includes the custom materials for concrete based on ANSI/ANS-6.4-2006: Nuclear Analysis and Design of Concrete Radiation Shielding for Nuclear Power Plants. These concretes are accessible via the Custom Material Tool and include all necessary information to include in the casefile.

Requirements:

• Microsoft Windows® Vista/2000/XP
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® Version 7 and above
• For outputing results to Microsoft Excel® and Word®, Microsoft Office® 2003/2007 is required

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