Monte Carlo Simulation of Indoor External Exposure due to Gamma-emitting   Radionuclides in Building Materials
  The use of building materials containing naturally occurring radionuclides,such as K-40, U-238 and Th-232 and their progeny, could lead to external exposures of the residents of such buildings. In this paper, a set of models are set up to calculate the specific effective dose rates(the effective dose rate per Bq/kg of K-40, U-238 series, and Th-232 series) imposed to residents by building materials with MCNPX code. Effect of chemical composition, position concerned in the room and thickness as well as density of material is analyzed. In order to facilitate more precise assessment of indoor external dose due to gamma emitting radionuclides in building materials, three regressive expressions are proposed and validated by measured data to calculate specific effective rate for K-40, U-238 series and Th-232 series, respectively. 
Jun Deng, Lei Cao, Xu Su
physics.ins-det nucl-ex physics.med-ph