In the radiation fields of high energy accelerator facilities, high-altitude aircraft and space flights, high-energy neutron dosimetry of $20 MeV or more is a significant issue for radiological protection. We studied the feasibility of experimental measurements of linear energy transfer (LET) distributions for secondary charged particles induced by fast neutrons using CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors. In order to investigate a method of analyzing the CR-39 detectors that is appropriate for fast neutron dosimetry, two-layer CR-39 stacks were exposed to monochromatic neutrons (0.25, 0.55, 5, and 15 MeV) at the Fast Neutron Laboratory of Tohoku University in Japan. We also conducted Monte Carlo calculations to estimate the detection efficiency of the CR-39 detector for recoil protons. The CR-39 detectors treated by single-step chemical etching were used to obtain LET distributions for LET > 10 keV/mm-water. The results indicated that measurements of short-range particles are very important for obtaining the correct LET distributions. Using the measured LET distributions, we calculated neutron sensitivities, absorbed doses and dose equivalents based on the ICRP 60 Q-L relation and averaged quality factors. The dose equivalents were compared with the neutron fluence-to-dose equivalent conversion factors given by ICRP 74 and the averaged quality factors were compared with weighting factors given by ICRP 60 and ICRP 92.

In order to measure the spatial distribution of neutrons in an accelerator room,the combined use of activation detectors and an imaging plate was tried.Activation detectors were set on monitoring points in the accelerator room. After the end of operation,the detectors were collected and pasted on the corresponding monitoring points on a layout plan of the accelerator room.The plan was overlaid with an imaging plate to develop the activity of activation detectors.This method is suitable for the simultaneous measurement of the activities of many detectors without any decay correction.The obtained image data are very useful for grasping the propagation of neutrons from the beamloss points and to make an effective design for reducing the activation of the accelerator components and accelerator buildings.

No abstract

No abstract

An irradiation field of high-energy neutrons produced in the forward direction from a thick tungsten target bombarded by 500 MeV protons was arranged at the KENS spallation neutron source facility. In this facility, shielding experiment was performed with an ordinary concrete shield of 4 m thickness assembled in the irradiation room, 2.5 m downstream from the target centre. Activation detectors of bismuth, aluminium, indium and gold were inserted into eight slots inside the shield and attenuations of neutron reaction rates were obtained by measurements of gamma-rays from the activation detectors. A MARS14 Monte Carlo simulation was also performed down to thermal energy, and comparisons between the calculations and measurements show agreements within a factor of 3. This neutron field is useful for studies of shielding, activation and radiation damage of materials for high-energy neutrons, and experimental data are useful to check the accuracies of the transmission and activation calculation codes.