Personal neutron dosimetry in nuclear power plants using etched track and albedo thermoluminescence dosemeters

Measurement of the personal dose equivalent rates for neutrons is a difficult task because available dosemeters do not provide the required energy response and sensitivity. Furthermore, the available wide calibration spectra recommended by the International Standard Organisation does not reproduce adequately the spectra encountered in practical situations of the nuclear industry. There is a real necessity to characterise the radiation field, in which workers can be exposed, and to calibrate personal dosemeters in order to determine the dose equivalent in these installations. For this reason, we measure the neutron spectrum with our Bonner sphere system and we fold this spectrum with energy-dependent fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients to obtain the reference dose equivalent rate. This reference value is then compared with the personal dosemeter reading to determine a field-specific correction factor. In this paper, we present the values of this field-specific correction factor for etched track and albedo thermoluminescence dosemeters at three measurement locations inside the containment building of the Vandellòs II nuclear power plant. We have found that assigning to each personal dosemeter the mean value of the field-specific correction factors of the three measurement locations, allows the evaluation of neutron personal dose equivalent rate with a relative uncertainty of ∼25 and 15% for the PADC and albedo dosemeters, respectively. © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved.