Virtual Igor – An analytical phantom for the simulation of the Saint Petersburg brick phantom in arbitrary layouts in MCNP

Virtual Igor produces MCNP geometries (right) for arbitrary layouts of the brick phantom (left).

The Saint Petersburg brick phantom is a common resource for the calibration of whole-body counters. It consists of plastic blocks, which can be assembled in different layouts so as to replicate the shape of the human body. The blocks can be equipped with radioactive sources in order to simulate radioactivity inside the body. The brick phantom is well-known by names such as Igor, Olga or Irina.

Monte-Carlo simulations

Monte-Carlo simulations are computer simulations that calculate the behaviour of ionising radiation. For example, such simulations allow assessing how well measurement devices like the whole-body counters of the internal monitoring labs of BfS respond to radioactivity to be measured.

Virtual Igor is a computer code which makes the usage of the Saint Petersburg brick phantom in arbitrary user-defined layouts with the Monte-Carlo code MCNP possible. Users can replicate the layout of the brick phantom in a suitable third-party software and import the generated file in Virtual Igor. Then, Virtual Igor generates a file that can be used with MCNP.

Download and licence terms

Virtual Igor is available for free. Instructions about its usage are contained in the user documentation. The computer code is licenced under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence which stipulates among others an attribution of the original author. This requirement can be fulfilled by referencing the publication Meisenberg (2021), Virtual Igor: an analytical phantom for the simulation of the Saint Petersburg brick phantom in arbitrary layouts in MCNP. Radiation and Environmental Biophysics.