Astronauts’ exposure to space radiation is of high concern for long-term missions, especially for those in deep space such as possible travels to Mars. In these cases shielding optimization is a crucial issue, and simulations based on radiation transport codes and anthropomorphic model phantoms can be of great help. In this work the FLUKA Monte Carlo code was coupled with two anthropomorphic phantoms (a mathematical model and a “voxel” model) to calculate organ-averaged dose, dose equivalent and “biological dose” in the various tissues and organs following exposure to the August 1972 Solar Particle Event and to Galactic Cosmic Rays under different shielding conditions. The “biological dose” was characterized by the average number of induced “Complex Lesions” (CLs) per cell in a given organ or tissue, where CLs are clustered DNA breaks which can play an important role in chromosome aberration induction. Separate calculation of the contributions from secondary hadrons – in particular neutrons – with respect to primary particles allowed us to quantify the role played by nuclear interactions occurring in the shield and in the human body. Specifically for GCR, the contributions from the different components of the incident primary spectra were calculated separately as well. As expected, the SPE doses showed a dramatic decrease with increasing Al shielding. Furthermore, for SPEs internal organs received much lower doses with respect to skin, and nuclear interactions were found to be of minor importance. A 10g/cm2 Al storm shelter turned out to be sufficient to respect the NCRP limits for 30-days LEO missions in case of a SPE similar to the August 1972 event. In contrast with SPEs, GCR absorbed doses remained roughly constant with increasing Al shielding. The organ-averaged dose equivalent and biological dose showed a (slight) decrease starting from a shield thickness of 2g/cm2, probably due the lower LET of projectile fragments.

Astronauts' exposure to the various components of the space radiation field is of great concern for long-term missions, especially for those in deep space such as a possible travel to Mars. Simulations based on radiation transport/interaction codes coupled with anthropomorphic model phantoms can be of great help in view of risk evaluation and shielding optimisation, which is therefore a crucial issue. The FLUKA Monte Carlo code can be coupled with two types of anthropomorphic phantom (a mathematical model and a ''voxel'' model) to calculate organ-averaged absorbed dose, dose equivalent and ''biological'' dose under different shielding conditions. Herein the ''biological dose'' is represented by the average number of ''Complex Lesions'' (CLs) per cell in a given organ. CLs are clustered DNA breaks previously calculated by means of event-by-event track structure simulations at the nm level and integrated on-line into FLUKA, which adopts a condensed-history approach; such lesions have been shown to play a fundamental role in chromosome aberration induction, which in turn can be correlated with carcinogenesis. Examples of calculation results will be presented relative to Galactic Cosmic Rays, as well as to the August 1972 Solar Particle Event. The contributions from primary ions and secondary particles will be shown separately, thus allowing quantification of the role played by nuclear reactions occurring in the shield and in the human body itself. As expected, the SPE doses decrease dramatically with increasing the Al shielding thickness; nuclear reaction products, essentially due to target fragmentation, are of minor importance. A 10 g/cm2 Al shelter resulted to be sufficient to respect the 30-day limits for deterministic effects recommended for missions in Low Earth Orbit. In contrast with the results obtained for SPEs, the calculated GCR doses are almost independent of the Al shield thickness, and the GCR doses to internal organs are not significantly lower than the skin doses. Furthermore, nuclear interactions play a much larger role for GCR than for SPE doses.

Human exposure to space radiation implies two kinds of risk, both stochastic and deterministic. Shielding optimisation therefore represents a crucial goal for long-term missions, especially in deep space. In this context, the use of radiation transport codes coupled with anthropomorphic phantoms allows to simulate typical radiation exposures for astronauts behind different shielding, and to calculate doses to different organs. In this work, the FLUKA Monte Carlo code and two phantoms, a mathematical model and a voxel model, were used, taking the Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) spectra from the model of Badhwar and O'Neill. The time integral spectral proton fluence of the August 1972 Solar Particle Event (SPE) was represented by an exponential function. For each aluminium shield thickness, besides total doses the contributions from primary and secondary particles for different organs and tissues were calculated separately. More specifically, organ-averaged absorbed doses, dose equivalents and a form of 'biological dose', defined on the basis of initial (clustered) DNA damage, were calculated. As expected, the SPE doses dramatically decreased with increasing shielding, and doses in internal organs were lower than in skin. The contribution of secondary particles to SPE doses was almost negligible; however it is of note that, at high shielding (10 g cm(-2)), most of the secondaries are neutrons. GCR organ doses remained roughly constant with increasing Al shielding. In contrast to SPE results, for the case of cosmic rays, secondary particles accounted for a significant fraction of the total dose.

Tumor treatment with protons and Carbon ions can allow for a better optimization of Tumor Control Probability and Normal Tissue Complication Probability, especially for radio-resistant tumors. Exposure to protons and heavier ions is also of concern for manned space missions such as future travels to the Moon and Mars. Nuclear reactions with the human body constituents, the beam line components (for hadrontherapy), and the spacecraft walls and shielding (for space radiation protection) can significantly modify the characteristics of the primary radiation field and thus the dose distributions in the various target tissues. In this context the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code, integrated with radiobiological data and coupled with anthropomorphic phantoms, was applied to the characterization of therapeutic proton beams and the calculation of space radiation organ doses, with focus on the role of nuclear interactions. Besides absorbed and equivalent doses, distributions of "biological" dose (modeled as the average number of DNA clustered lesions per cell induced in a given organ or tissue) were calculated as well. Concerning space radiation protection, exposure to Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) and Solar Particle Events (SPE) under different shielding conditions was simulated. Both for hadrontherapy and for space radiation exposure, nuclear reaction products were found to play a more important role for the equivalent and "biological" dose than for the absorbed dose. Furthermore, while for SPEs the doses (both absorbed and equivalent/"biological") decreased dramatically by increasing the shield thickness, the GCR doses showed a slight shielding dependence. Overall, these examples of application of FLUKA to radiotherapy and radiation protection problems emphasized the need of further models and data, typically double-differential cross sections for nucleus-nucleus interactions at energies below a few hundred MeV/n.

The modeling of hadron and ion transport and interactions in matter is a subject of growing interest in dosimetry and radiobiology, mainly due to the strong development of applications related to hadrontherapy and space dosimetry. The nuclear reaction models embedded in the FLUKA code cover hadron-, ion- and photon-induced nuclear interactions from energies as low as few tens of MeV up to several tens of TeV. FLUKA deals also with transport and interactions of electromagnetic particles and low energy neutrons, allowing for fully integrated simulations of mixed field effects. On-line integration of results from event-by-event track structure simulations at the nm level allows for calculation of ”biological doses” (e.g. DNA damage yields per cell in a given organ), in parallel with more standard LET-based evaluations. A short description of the FLUKA hadron and ion interaction models is given, as well as comparisons with experimental data. Examples of applications are also presented.

Comprehensive analysis of heavy ion reactions at low and intermediate energies is made using the Boltzmann Master Equation theory and a Relativistic Quantum Molecular Dynamics model, respectively. As an example of the large variety of applications of such a study, a result concerning space radiation protection is presented.

The FLUKA Monte Carlo transport code is a well-known simulation tool in High Energy Physics. FLUKA is a dynamic tool in the sense that it is being continually updated and improved by the authors. We review the progress achieved since the last CHEP Conference on the physics models, some technical improvements to the code and some recent applications. From the point of view of the physics, improvements have been made with the extension of PEANUT to higher energies for p, n, pi, pbar/nbar and for nbars down to the lowest energies, the addition of the online capability to evolve radioactive products and get subsequent dose rates, upgrading of the treatment of EM interactions with the elimination of the need to separately prepare preprocessed files. A new coherent photon scattering model, an updated treatment of the photo-electric effect, an improved pair production model, new photon cross sections from the LLNL Cullen database have been implemented. In the field of nucleus-- nucleus interactions the electromagnetic dissociation of heavy ions has been added along with the extension of the interaction models for some nuclide pairs to energies below 100 MeV/A using the BME approach, as well as the development of an improved QMD model for intermediate energies. Both DPMJET 2.53 and 3 remain available along with rQMD 2.4 for heavy ion interactions above 100 MeV/A. Technical improvements include the ability to use parentheses in setting up the combinatorial geometry, the introduction of pre-processor directives in the input stream. a new random number generator with full 64 bit randomness, new routines for mathematical special functions (adapted from SLATEC). Finally, work is progressing on the deployment of a user-friendly GUI input interface as well as a CAD-like geometry creation and visualization tool. On the application front, FLUKA has been used to extensively evaluate the potential space radiation effects on astronauts for future deep space missions, the activation dose for beam target areas, dose calculations for radiation therapy as well as being adapted for use in the simulation of events in the ALICE detector at the LHC.