Effect of background radiation on the lower limit of detection for extended dosemeter issue periods

An extension of dosemeter issue period brings significant economic and logistic benefits. Therefore, it is desirable to have an extended period as long as possible without significant loss of the quality of dose measurements. There are many studies devoted to the investigation of fading or reduction of the dose accumulated in dosemeters with time. However, this is one of many critical factors that need's to be taken into account when extending the dosemeter issue period. Background radiation is also a critical factor that needs to be appropriately accounted. In this report, a new approach has been suggested for evaluating the effect of background radiation on the lower limit of detection (LLD) of occupational radiation dose. This approach is based on the data collected from control dosemeters that are routinely used for subtraction of background radiation from occupational dose measurements. The results show that for LiF:Mg,Cu,P thermoluminescence dosemeters, variations in background radiation have a higher impact on the LLD than dose fading and the absolute value of background radiation. Although there is no significant dose fading in LiF:Mg,Cu,P for a dosemeter issue period up to 1 y, variations in background radiation during this period of time can significantly increase photon LLDs (up to 700 microSv) for workers operating in an environment of variable radiation background.