Development and Characterization of a Neutron Personal Dose Equivalent Monitor

摘要

The authors developed a new neutron-measuring instrument that was designed to measure a neutronpersonal dose equivalent, H_p(10). This instrument is composed of a conventional moderator-based neutron doseequivalent meter and a neutron shield made of borated polyethylene which covers a backward hemisphere toadjust the angular dependence. The whole design was determined on the basis of MCNP calculations so as to haveresponse characteristics which would generally match both the energy and angular dependencies of H_p(10). Theverification experiments for energy and angular responses were done using monoenergetic neutrons produced bythe accelerator and polyenergetic neutrons from the moderated ~(252)Cf source. Experiments showed that the newinstrument has reasonably acceptable responses as a reference neutron dosemeter. The authors conclude that thisnew instrument will be a great help in assessing the reference values of neutron H_p(10) during field testing ofpersonal neutron dosemeters in the workplace and also in interpreting their readings.