Neutron dosimetry at workplaces of JC “Institute of Nuclear Materials”

Abstract

If the neutron fields at personnel workplaces differ from the neutron fields in which individual dosimeters are verified, there is a possibility of additional errors in the assessment of such dosimetric quantities as ambient dose equivalent, individual dose equivalent or effective dose. To take into account the energy distribution of the neutron radiation flux density and the geometry of the irradiation of workers, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the fields of neutron radiation at the workplaces of the personnel. In order to obtain conditionally true levels of personnel exposure to neutron radiation at nuclear facilities, studies of the energy and angular distribution of the neutron radiation flux density were carried out at the workplaces of the Institute of Reactor Materials JSC, Zarechny. The energy distribution of the neutron radiation flux density was obtained using an MKS-AT1117M multi-sphere dosimeter-radiometer with a BDKN-06 detection unit and a set of polyethylene spheres-moderators. The angular distribution of the neutron radiation flux density was estimated from the results of measurements of the accumulated dose of neutron radiation by individual thermoluminescent dosimeters placed on four vertical planes of a heterogeneous human phantom. The results of measurements of the energy and angular distribution of the neutron radiation flux density made it possible to estimate the conditionally true values of the ambient and individual dose equivalents. The calculated conventionally true values differ from the measured values from 0.7 to 8.9 times for the ambient dose equivalent and from 6 to 50 times for the individual dose equivalent. In order to reduce the error in assessing the effective dose of personnel using personal dosimeters, correction factors were determined. For different workplaces and types of personal dosimeters, correction factors are in the range of values from 0.02 to 0.16.