EURADOS intercomparisons on whole body and extremity dosemeters (2008–2009) – Results and comparison of different dosemeter designs

Abstract

Abstract The EURADOS (European Radiation Dosimetry Group) working group (WG2) on Harmonisation of Individual Monitoring in Europe has shown that intercomparisons are fundamental for harmonisation of individual monitoring. As a result of these considerations, EURADOS started to prepare a series of continuous intercomparisons for individual monitoring services (IMS) in Europe. EURADOS has now successfully executed two intercomparison exercises, one for whole body dosemeters (2008) and one for extremity dosemeters (2009). Both exercises were performed without external funding, all costs being covered by the participants’ fees. More than 120 (!) different – mainly passive – dosimetry systems were tested from all over Europe until now and the results were analysed and compared. Although scientific studies were not the primary objective of these exercises specific additional information about the tested systems supplied by the participants for statistical analysis allows a detailed analysis of these results with respect to different parameters like dosemeter type, detector material, filter thickness or others design parameters. The influence of such parameters on the response values of the dosemeters is analysed and discussed in this paper. Both energy response as well as directional response for beta and photon radiation are considered. The influence of different design parameters e.g. detector material, is analysed by comparing the frequency distribution of the response values for different dosemeter groups. Pronounced differences for different detector materials (LiF:Mg,Ti, LiF:Mg,Cu,P and Li2B4O7/CaSO4) were found. The paper gives a comprehensive overview on the performance of various European dosimetry services and the influence of the dosemeter design on the resulting response values.