Development and testing of a thermoluminescent dosemeter for mixed neutron-photon-beta radiation fields

Abstract

A new four-element thermoluminescent (TL) dosemeter and dose evaluation algorithm have been developed and tested to better characterize personnel exposure in mixed neutron-photon-beta radiation fields. The prototype dosemeter is based on a commercially available TL card (with three LiF-7 chips and one LiF-6 chip) and modified filtration elements. The new algorithm takes advantage of the high temperature peak characteristics of the LiF-6 element to better quantify the neutron dose component. The dosemeter was tested in various radiation fields, consisting of mixtures of two radiation types typically used for dosemeter performance testing, as well as mixtures of three radiation types to simulate possible exposure conditions. The new dosemeter gave superior performance, based on the tolerance levels, when using the new algorithm as compared to a conventional algorithm that did not use the high temperature peak methodology. The limitations and further improvements are discussed.