A STUDY ON THE UNCERTAINTY FOR THE ROUTINE DOSIMETRY SERVICE AT THE LEBANESE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION USING HARSHAW 8814 DOSEMETERS

The personal dosimetry service at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission uses Harshaw 8814 cards with LiF:Mg,Ti detectors. The dosemeters are read in a Harshaw 6600 TLD reader. In the process of accreditation for the ISO 17025 standard((1)), different influence factors are investigated and the uncertainty has been determined. The Individual Monitoring Service Laboratory-LAEC reads the dosemeters once it receives them from the customer, and new cards are immediately given for the next wearing period. The wearing period is 2 months. The dosemeter results are reported to the customers without background subtraction. Both Hp(10) and Hp(0.07) are reported. For this paper, only the uncertainty on Hp(10) will be focussed. The following factors are taken into account for the uncertainty: calibration factor, dosemeter homogeneity and repeatability, energy and angular dependence, non-linearity, temperature dependence, etc. Also the detection limit was determined. One of the important factors is the correction for fading. This fading correction depends on the procedure used such as storage temperatures, the time-temperature profile of the read-out, pre-heat and annealing conditions. Pre- and post-irradiation fading curves were measured for a storage period up to 182 d at room temperature (15-25°C). The resulting final combined standard uncertainty on the reported doses is of the order of 24 % for doses of ∼1 mSv.