1 Scope
This Technical Specification applies to all types of counting dosemeters, irrespective
of the measuring quantity and the type of radiation intended to be measured. It ensures
that a single radiation pulse can be correctly measured even if the dosemeter is in the internal state relevant for measuring background or environmental radiation. The characteristics
of the dosemeter for repeated pulses is expected to be better than for one single
radiation pulse with the same parameters but worse than for continuous radiation, i.e., in between of the characteristics for these two extreme conditions. This Technical
Specification does not specify the characteristics of the dosemeter for repeated pulses.
The Technical Specification does not apply for those types of counting dosemeters
that either
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– do not have an indication or software read-out of the dose rate and the number of pulses counted,
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– convert the non-pulsed detector signal to counts by a converter, or
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– use nuclear reactions to generate long and nearly continuous secondary radiation fields which then are measured by the dosemeter using counting techniques instead of measuring the direct radiation pulse.
The pulsed radiation source is characterized by the parameters
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– radiation pulse duration, tpulse,
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– pulse peak dose rate,
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– dose per radiation pulse, Hpulse.
This Technical Specification considers the pulsation of the radiation field as an
additional influence quantity like particle energy and direction of radiation incidence.
Therefore, the tests described are additional to all the tests in the respective standards.
This technical specification describes methods to determine the characteristic parameters
of the counting dosemeter. A prerequisite of the method is that the model function
of the dosemeter can sufficiently be approximated by
where
| G dose | is the dose indication of the dosemeter, |
| G count | is the dose indication per counting event, |
| n count | is the number of counting events counted by the dosemeter, and |
| k dead | is the correction for dead time losses. |
This simplified model function should not fully describe the dosemeter but it should
be valid only – maybe with effective values – for the tests in the case of a single
pulse occurring when the dosemeter is in the internal state relevant for measuring background or environmental radiation, i.e., the dosemeter
has not performed any specific parameter adjustment for high dose rate. In this sense
this simplified model function uses effective parameters specific for pulsed radiation.
This technical specification is applicable to all types of radiation for which a suitable
pulsed reference field is available and all other requirements are fulfilled.