Verification of the VARSKIN beta skin dose calculation computer code.

The computer code VARSKIN is used extensively to calculate dose to the skin resulting from contaminants on the skin or on protective clothing covering the skin. The code uses six pre-programmed source geometries, four of which are volume sources, and a wide range of user-selectable radionuclides. Some verification of this code had been carried out before the current version of the code, version 3.0, was released, but this was limited in extent and did not include all the source geometries that the code is capable of modeling. This work extends this verification to include all the source geometries that are programmed in the code over a wide range of beta radiation energies and skin depths. Verification was carried out by comparing the doses calculated using VARSKIN with the doses for similar geometries calculated using the Monte Carlo radiation transport code MCNP5. Beta end-point energies used in the calculations ranged from 0.3 MeV up to 2.3 MeV. The results showed excellent agreement between the MCNP and VARSKIN calculations, with the agreement being within a few percent for point and disc sources and within 20% for other sources with the exception of a few cases, mainly at the low end of the beta end-point energies. The accuracy of the VARSKIN results, based on the work in this paper, indicates that it is sufficiently accurate for calculation of skin doses resulting from skin contaminations, and that the uncertainties arising from the use of VARSKIN are likely to be small compared with other uncertainties that typically arise in this type of dose assessment, such as those resulting from a lack of exact information on the size, shape, and density of the contaminant, the depth of the sensitive layer of the skin at the location of the contamination, the duration of the exposure, and the possibility of the source moving over various areas of the skin during the exposure period if the contaminant is on protective clothing.