Production of element correction factors for thermoluminescent dosimeters

Approximately 80 processors of personal dosimetry in the United States use thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs). Recent demands that dosimetry processors be able to measure radiation doses to within +/- 50% of the correct value have focused attention on the reproducibility of the TL elements within each TLD. The phosphors for these TLDs are manufactured by three companies. A dosimetry processor faces three options concerning the quality of the TL elements purchased; trust the supplier's quality control program, screen new TL elements and discard those that are extremely bad, or use element correction factors (ECFs). The first option results in dosimetry processors failing the +/- 50% accuracy requirement due to excessive variability among the TL elements. The second option still permits large precision errors that come close to the +/- 50% accuracy requirement. This paper advocates the third option and presents a 10-step procedure to produce ECFs. The procedure ensures that the ECFs represent only variations among the TL elements and not variations caused by stability problems with the TLD reader. Following is an example of ECF production for 3000 TLDs.