The impacts of a new electrochemical etch cycle for the Public Health England neutron personal dosimetry service

Luke Hager; Richard Tanner; Philip Gilvin; Jonathan Eakins; Sean Baker

doi:10.1016/j.radmeas.2017.05.010

The impacts of a new electrochemical etch cycle for the Public Health England neutron personal dosimetry service

Luke Hager^*, Richard Tanner, Philip Gilvin, Jonathan Eakins, Sean Baker

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Public Health England (PHE) neutron and radon personal dosimetry services based on electrochemical etching of PADC have been running since 1986. Changes to the detector material have required a new etch cycle to be developed to improve linearity at high doses: A new supplier of PADC was able to meet the stringent criteria for thickness, response and background, but it was found that the tracks were, on average, larger, resulting in increased track overlap, saturation of the signal at lower dose levels and a reduction in the maximum dose measurable. This dose linearity problem meant that a more severe correction was needed, which led to increased measurement uncertainty. A new etch cycle has reduced the mean track size, and reduced track overlap, meaning that the maximum reportable dose is increased and dose assessments at higher doses are more reliable. Also reported on here are the results of tests on the energy and angle dependences of response, and the performance of the dosemeter in workplace fields, with data compared from dosemeters etched with both the old and the new processes. The results show that the new etch cycle produces an improvement to the routine service.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	303-311
Number of pages	9
Journal	Radiation Measurements
Volume	106
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2017.05.010
Publication status	Published - Nov 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England . The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively.

Funding Information:
This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England. The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017

Keywords

Dose linearity
Energy dependence of response
Neutrons
PADC
Personal dosimetry
Workplace field normalization factor

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.radmeas.2017.05.010

Cite this

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title = "The impacts of a new electrochemical etch cycle for the Public Health England neutron personal dosimetry service",

abstract = "The Public Health England (PHE) neutron and radon personal dosimetry services based on electrochemical etching of PADC have been running since 1986. Changes to the detector material have required a new etch cycle to be developed to improve linearity at high doses: A new supplier of PADC was able to meet the stringent criteria for thickness, response and background, but it was found that the tracks were, on average, larger, resulting in increased track overlap, saturation of the signal at lower dose levels and a reduction in the maximum dose measurable. This dose linearity problem meant that a more severe correction was needed, which led to increased measurement uncertainty. A new etch cycle has reduced the mean track size, and reduced track overlap, meaning that the maximum reportable dose is increased and dose assessments at higher doses are more reliable. Also reported on here are the results of tests on the energy and angle dependences of response, and the performance of the dosemeter in workplace fields, with data compared from dosemeters etched with both the old and the new processes. The results show that the new etch cycle produces an improvement to the routine service.",

keywords = "Dose linearity, Energy dependence of response, Neutrons, PADC, Personal dosimetry, Workplace field normalization factor",

author = "Luke Hager and Richard Tanner and Philip Gilvin and Jonathan Eakins and Sean Baker",

note = "Funding Information: This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England . The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively. Funding Information: This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England. The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017",

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AU - Eakins, Jonathan

AU - Baker, Sean

N1 - Funding Information: This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England . The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively. Funding Information: This work was performed using core funding from Public Health England. The authors thank David Thomas and Paula Salvador Castineira of the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Teddington, London, for performing the monoenergetic and thermal exposures, respectively. Publisher Copyright: © 2017

PY - 2017/11

Y1 - 2017/11

N2 - The Public Health England (PHE) neutron and radon personal dosimetry services based on electrochemical etching of PADC have been running since 1986. Changes to the detector material have required a new etch cycle to be developed to improve linearity at high doses: A new supplier of PADC was able to meet the stringent criteria for thickness, response and background, but it was found that the tracks were, on average, larger, resulting in increased track overlap, saturation of the signal at lower dose levels and a reduction in the maximum dose measurable. This dose linearity problem meant that a more severe correction was needed, which led to increased measurement uncertainty. A new etch cycle has reduced the mean track size, and reduced track overlap, meaning that the maximum reportable dose is increased and dose assessments at higher doses are more reliable. Also reported on here are the results of tests on the energy and angle dependences of response, and the performance of the dosemeter in workplace fields, with data compared from dosemeters etched with both the old and the new processes. The results show that the new etch cycle produces an improvement to the routine service.

AB - The Public Health England (PHE) neutron and radon personal dosimetry services based on electrochemical etching of PADC have been running since 1986. Changes to the detector material have required a new etch cycle to be developed to improve linearity at high doses: A new supplier of PADC was able to meet the stringent criteria for thickness, response and background, but it was found that the tracks were, on average, larger, resulting in increased track overlap, saturation of the signal at lower dose levels and a reduction in the maximum dose measurable. This dose linearity problem meant that a more severe correction was needed, which led to increased measurement uncertainty. A new etch cycle has reduced the mean track size, and reduced track overlap, meaning that the maximum reportable dose is increased and dose assessments at higher doses are more reliable. Also reported on here are the results of tests on the energy and angle dependences of response, and the performance of the dosemeter in workplace fields, with data compared from dosemeters etched with both the old and the new processes. The results show that the new etch cycle produces an improvement to the routine service.

KW - Dose linearity

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KW - Personal dosimetry

KW - Workplace field normalization factor

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ER -

The impacts of a new electrochemical etch cycle for the Public Health England neutron personal dosimetry service

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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