Abstract
A new Monte Carlo simulation code has been developed to model the transport of optical photons around scintillation detectors. The simulation allows a variety of detector geometries to be modelled at any orientation with respect to one another. Particular emphasis was placed on developing new surface models which incorporated multiple scattering within the surface and avoided errors from shadowing effects. An object-oriented approach was taken to allow further additions to the code to be made with relative ease. The simulation was designed to accept a range of input types so that it could be easily coupled to the output of radiation transport codes. This coupling allows the code to be used as a tool to answer the following questions: What information is imparted to the plastic by its interaction with an energetic particle or photon? How much of this information is theoretically recoverable? How much of this information is practically recoverable? How much is economically recoverable? The simulation code has been used to examine the effect of simple changes in detector design on the DP6 alpha/beta discrimination monitor produced by Saint-Gobain Crystals and Detectors [1]. The code was also used to assess the feasibility of using BGO as a detector in a high speed tomography system for multi-phase flow imaging.