Spectrum-dose conversion operator of NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors for air dose rate measurement in contaminated environments

Tsuda, Shuichi; Saito, Kimiaki

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 166(Part 3), p.419 - 426, 2017/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.02.008

Air dose rate monitoring in the environment has been performed since the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident happened. In the measurement, NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors are used, which are usually used in nuclear power plants and calibrated in a uniform irradiation condition in a radiation calibration field. In general, however, the detector responses are dependent on incident direction and in reality, the incident direction of the photons is not uniform in the environment. In this study, to evaluate the dependence of dose on the photon incident direction, the spectrum - dose conversion operator (G(E) function) for air kerma in a semi-infinite radiation field were obtained using the PHITS code for commonly used NaI(Tl) and CsI(Tl) scintillation detectors. The results indicate that the commonly used scintillation detectors overestimate the doses by a maximum of 40% for mono-energetic photons but under the real environment, one could obtain the dose in the semi-infinite radiation field within 20%.