Building a Graphite Calorimetry System for the Dosimetry of Therapeutic X-ray Beams

A graphite calorimetry system was built and tested under irradiation. The noise level of the temperature measurement system was approximately 0.08 mK (peak to peak). The temperature of the core part rose by approximately 8.6 mK at 800 MU (monitor unit) for 6-MV X-ray beams, and it increased as X-ray energy increased. The temperature rise showed less spread when it was normalized to the accumulated charge, as measured by an external monitoring chamber. The radiation energy absorbed by the core part was determined to have values of 0.798 J/μC, 0.389 J/μC, and 0.352 J/μC at 6 MV, 10 MV, and 18 MV, respectively. These values were so consistent among repeated runs that their coefficient of variance was less than 0.15%.