1983 international intercomparison of nuclear accident dosimetry systems at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Technical Report · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5776878· OSTI ID:5776878

Swaja, R E; Greene, R T; Sims, C S

An international intercomparison of nuclear accident dosimetry systems was conducted during September 12-16, 1983, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) using the Health Physics Research Reactor operated in the pulse mode to simulate criticality accidents. This study marked the twentieth in a series of annual accident dosimetry intercomparisons conducted at ORNL. Participants from ten organizations attended this intercomparison and measured neutron and gamma doses at area monitoring stations and on phantoms for three different shield conditions. Results of this study indicate that foil activation techniques are the most popular and accurate method of determining accident-level neutron doses at area monitoring stations. For personnel monitoring, foil activation, blood sodium activation, and thermoluminescent (TL) methods are all capable of providing accurate dose estimates in a variety of radiation fields. All participants in this study used TLD's to determine gamma doses with very good results on the average. Chemical dosemeters were also shown to be capable of yielding accurate estimates of total neutron plus gamma doses in a variety of radiation fields. While 83% of all neutron measurements satisfied regulatory standards relative to reference values, only 39% of all gamma results satisfied corresponding guidelines for gamma measurements. These results indicate that continued improvement in accident dosimetry evaluation and measurement techniques is needed.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5776878
• Report Number(s): ORNL-6164; ON: DE85011303
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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