The Relationship Between the Radiobiological Effects Table and Tactical Military Radiation Measurement System Design

摘要

The Radiobiological Effects Table (RET) and the radiac are two inseparable components of a system, and care must be exercised in the design of both if a satisfactory result is to be obtained. There are a number of different ways of constructing the effects table and calibrating the radiac that will result in satisfactory operation of the system. Unfortunately, the present approach, i.e., stating the RET in terms of exposure in roentgens or absorbed dose in rads (air) and calibrating the radiac so that it indicates properly in a free air point source geometry, automatically results in errors on the order of 50 percent for gamma dosimeters and ratemeters and an overstatement of the neutron dose by a factor ranging from 2 to 6 for developmental neutron dosimeters. Correlating biological effects with midline dose for the RET and retaining the present calibration procedure improves the situation considerably for gamma measurements; but for the neutron dosimeter, the biological effectiveness of neutrons as a function of energy must be taken into account during design if neutron and gamma dose are to be commensurate. (Author)