Description
Acceleration mechanisms based on high power lasers are naturally ramping-up towards important applications, like the medical investigations and treatment procedures. Although situated in a very incipient stage of development, the short bursts of ionizing radiations produced with the help of lasers found their path to important medical practices, bringing along a set of new features that could revolutionize the classical procedures. However, as the laser generated sources are not yet stable and fully understood, this may pose a considerable impact on the associated exposure to operators or patients, if not carefully assessed. Preliminary studies presented include a series of radiation protection approaches for integrating the top laser research technology in various medical applications, in a safely manner. Monte Carlo simulations for the accelerated particles and their dose distribution lay at the basis of practical engineered solutions for the shielding design of each treated experimental configuration. Calculations are complemented by several proposed dosimetry techniques which will further provide a validation of the safety measures implemented. At the end of the process, the resulted setup should be mature enough, both technologically and safety stable, so then preclinical test could be performed. Considerable joint efforts of experimentalists, safety personnel and medical practitioners would be required to reach this desiderate.
