Personal photon dosemeter trial—Devonport Royal Dockyard

Abstract

To establish an understanding of the operational responses of various personal dosemeters employed at Devonport and to assess new types of dosemeters, a photon dosemeter trial was conducted. Most day-to-day exposure is to relatively low dose rates. Therefore the suitability of each dosemeter for use within the relatively low Devonport dose rate environment has been assessed. The Panasonic TLD demonstrated a good representation of the dose within the medium to higher gamma energy ranges with an unexpected under-response at lower energies. The optically stimulated luminescent dosemeter showed a varied response within a degraded 60Co environment. With consistent under-response, the NRPB TLD and film badge were found to generally be unsuitable for sites such as Devonport. The Harshaw TLD demonstrated a good representation of the dose. The RADOS RAD80 and QFD fail to meet current best industry standards. However, the QFD is the only direct reading dosemeter suitable for use where intrinsically safe equipment is required. The RADOS RAD52 and SAIC PD 2i show a reasonable representation of the dose received but should be adjusted to read within an operational 60Co environment. Direct ion storage and Thermos electronic personal dosemeters showed good representations of the dose. Inherent characteristics combined with the associated systems led to the conclusion that these dosemeters should be employed for preference.