A study of the irradiation temperature coefficient for L-alanine and DL-alanine dosemeters

Alanine dosimetry is now well established both as a reference and routine dosemeter for industrial irradiation processing. Accurate dosimetry under the relatively harsh conditions of industrial processing requires a characterisation of the parameters that influence the dosemeter response. The temperature of the dosemeter during irradiation is a difficult quantity to measure so that the accuracy of the temperature coefficient that governs the dosemeter response becomes a critical factor. Numerous publications have reported temperature coefficients for several types of alanine dosemeters. The observed differences in the measured values were commonly attributed to the differences in the polymer binder or the experimental design of the measurement. However, the data demonstrated a consistent difference in the temperature coefficients between l-alanine and dl-alanine. Since there were no commonalities in the dosemeter composition or the measurement methods applied, a clear conclusion is not possible. To resolve this issue, the two isomeric forms of alanine dosemeters were prepared and irradiated in an identical manner. The results indicated that the dl-alanine temperature coefficient is more than 50% higher than the l-alanine temperature coefficient.