HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRON RESPONSE OF ELECTRONIC PERSONNEL DOSIMETERS

摘要

Electronic personnel dosimeters (EPD) are routinelyrnused to monitor worker dose at neutron energies < 20rnMeV. Second generation designs consist of both thermalrnand fast neutron detectors, whereby the combined data isrnused to determine neutron dose equivalent.rnThough not specifically designed for use at high-energyrnaccelerators, they nevertheless offer an attractivernmethod of monitoring personnel in real time. However, arnproper interpretation of displayed dose requires that thernenergy response of the device be known. To this end,rnmeasurements were conducted using several EPDs inrncommon use (Siemens N2, Fuji Electric NY2001 andrnSaphydose-n) in quasi-monoenergetic fields at thernUniversité Catholique de Louvain (33 and 60 MeV) andrnthe T. Svedberg Laboratory ( 46, 95, 143 and 173 MeV).rnIn addition, measurements have been made at the LosrnAlamos Neutron Science Center in broad energy fields atrnan average energy of 345 MeV.rnIn general, it has been found that these dosimetersrnover respond significantly in all of the above fields. It isrnpostulated, that this is due to charged particle spallationrnproduction within the fast neutron detector – beyondrnrecoil proton production in the proton converter. Thisrntheory has been substantiated using Monte Carlornsimulations of dosimeter response.