USE OF A SIMPLE THERMALISED NEUTRON FIELD FOR QUALITY ACCEPTANCE OF WHOLE BODY TLDS

The individual monitoring service of Public Health England (PHE) uses Harshaw™ whole-body and extremity thermoluminescent dosemeters (TLDs) with high-sensitivity lithium fluoride LiF:Mg,Cu,P, together with Harshaw 8800™ automated readers. The neutron-insensitive, (6)Li-depleted variety of TLD material is used by PHE because the service provides separate neutron and photon dosemeters. The neutron dosemeters are not sensitive to photons and vice versa Since insensitivity to neutrons is a supply requirement for TLDs, there is a need to test every new (annual) consignment for this. Because it is thermal neutrons that produce a response in (6)Li TLDs, a thermal field is needed. To this end, PHE has adopted the simple approach of sandwiching the TLDs between two ISO water-filled slab phantoms. In this arrangement, the fast neutrons from an Am-Be source are effectively thermalised. Details of the method are given, together with the results of supporting MCNP calculations and some typical results.