Answer to Question #12934 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"
Category: Medical and Dental Equipment/Shielding — Equipment
The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:
If an x ray were taken and the cassette was not sitting in the bucky tray correctly, so that 50% of the x-ray beam did not pass through the x-ray cassette would this lead to excessive scatter radiation? If the person taking the radiograph was located >3m away, would they be exposed to significantly increased scatter radiation?
I will assume that the question refers to a portable unit since otherwise the >3m distance would not be relevant due to the shielding of the control booth. I will further assume that the operator is not positioned with the beam pointing in their direction, since otherwise the concern would be for increased dose received from the primary beam (and that would change the answer to this question). With those assumptions, it would be very unlikely that the situation described would significantly increase the scatter to the operator at that distance. The beam is directed to the bucky and the orientation of the cassette partly in the bucky would most likely result in less of the cassette generating scatter to the operator.
Bruce Thomadsen, PhD, DABR