Operational specifications of the L.I.T.E.S. (Laser Illuminated Track Etch Scattering) dosemeter reader.
- Murray E.
- Robert T.
- Heather J.
- Richard J.
- Jeffrey M.
The Personnel Dosimetry Operations Team at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has accepted the LITES dosimeter reader into its suite of radiation dose measurement instruments. The LITES instrument transmits coherent light from a HeNe laser through the pertinent track etch foil and a photodiode measures the amount of light scattered by the etched tracks. A small beam stop blocks the main laser light, while a lens refocuses the scattered light into the photodiode. Three stepper motors in the current LITES system are used to position a carousel that holds 36 track etch dosimeters. Preliminary work with the LITES system demonstrated the device had a linear response in counting foils subjected to exposures up to 50 mSv (5.0 rem). The United States Department of Energy requires that annual general employee dose not exceed 50 mSv (5.0 rem). On a regular basis, LANL uses the Autoscan 60 reader system (Thermo Electron Corp.) for counting track etch dosimeters. However, LANL uses a 15 hour etch process for CR39 dosimeters, and this produces more and larger track etch pits than the 6 hour etch used by many institutions. Therefore, LANL only uses the Autoscan 60 for measuring neutron dose equivalent up to exposure levels of about 3 mSv (300 mrem). The LITES system has a measured lower limit of detection (LLD) of about 0.6 mSv (60 mrem), and it has a correlation coefficient of R{sup 2} = 0.99 over an exposure range up to 500 mSv (50.0 rem). A series of blind studies were done using three methods: the Autoscan 60 system, manual counting by optical microscope, and the LITES instrument. A collection of track etch dosimeters of unknown NDE (neutron dose equivalent) were analyzed using the three methods, and the (PC) performance coefficient was calculated when the NDE became known. The Autoscan 60 and optical microscope methods had a combined PC = 0.171, and the LITES instrument had a PC = 0.194, where a PC less than or equal to 0.300 is considered satisfactory.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE
- OSTI ID:
- 977713
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-04-4348
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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