A COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ABSOLUTE ACTIVITIES IN CONTAMINATIONS AND SKIN DOSES

At radiological facilities, protocols are in place to guide radiation protection personnel in the event of the radioactive contamination of surfaces. A count rate measurement is performed with a portable contamination survey meter and a sample of the contamination is taken for later analysis and identification of the radionuclides. If the contaminated surface was of a worker's skin, then a skin dose assessment is made. The determination of the absolute activity of the radionuclides of the contamination often rests on the assumed detection efficiency of the survey meter used in the initial counting. This may lead to important underestimation or overestimation of the radionuclides' activities as the detection efficiency of the instrument must depend on the radiation type, the energy and the backscatter characteristics of the surface. This paper reports on a user-friendly computer application that relies on databases of pre-calculated detection efficiencies and skin dose rate conversion factors for the accurate assessment of contamination activities and skin doses. The results of some cases are compared with the available data in the literature.