A directional dose equivalent monitor for neutrons.

Abstract

A directional dose equivalent monitor is introduced which consists of a 30 cm diameter spherical phantom hosting a superheated drop detector embedded at a depth of 10 mm. The device relies on the similarity between the fluence response of neutron superheated drop detectors based on halocarbon-12 and the quality-factor-weighted kerma factor. This implies that these detectors can be used for in-phantom dosimetry and provide a direct reading of dose equivalent at depth. The directional dose equivalent monitor was characterised experimentally with fast neutron calibrations and numerically with Monte Carlo simulations. The fluence response was determined at angles of 0, 45, 90, 135 and 180 degrees for thermal to 20 MeV neutrons. The response of the device is closely proportional to the fluence-to-directional dose equivalent conversion coefficient, h'phi (10; alpha, E). Therefore, our monitor is suitable for a direct measurement of neutron directional dose equivalent, H'(10), regardless of angle and energy distribution of the neutron fluence.