Study on method for simultaneous determination of ambient dose equivalent rates and activity concentration in air for environmental radiation monitoring

Kowatari, Munehiko; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Kessler, P.*; Neumaier, S.*; Rttger, A.*

Radioisotopes, 70(1), p.1 - 18, 2021/01

https://doi.org/10.3769/radioisotopes.70.1

Experimental determination of anisotropic emission of neutrons from Cf neutron source with the spherical protection case

Kowatari, Munehiko; Nishino, Sho; Romallosa, K. M. D.*; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Oishi, Tetsuya

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 189(4), p.436 - 443, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncaa064

The anisotropic emission of neutrons from a cylindrical X1 Cf source with the spherical external casing was experimentally determined. The influence of metal materials and shapes of the external casing to the anisotropy factor, () was assessed by the Monte Carlo calculation, before performing the measurement. The results of the calculation result implied that light and spherical-shaped external casing decreases the anisotropic emission of neutrons from a cylindrical source and the nature of the material does not affect the anisotropic emission to a large extent. The experimental results obtained when a spherical-shaped aluminum protection case was employed also revealed that the anisotropy factor was close to 1.0 with a wide zenith angle range.

Establishment of a low dose rate gamma ray calibration field for environmental radiation monitoring devices

Kowatari, Munehiko; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Nishino, Sho; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Oishi, Tetsuya; Kessler, P.*; Neumaier, S.*; Rttger, A.*

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 187(1), p.61 - 68, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncz138

Assessment of inhomogeneity of exposure to radiation workers in homogeneous exposure situations in Nuclear Industry and Accelerator Facility by using Monte Carlo calculations coupled with a mathematical phantom; Exposure to the lens of the eye in homogeneous exposure situation due to gamma and beta rays

Kowatari, Munehiko; Yoshitomi, Hiroshi

Radioisotopes, 68(9), p.595 - 603, 2019/09

https://doi.org/10.3769/radioisotopes.68.595

Preliminary study on determination of surface contamination density on soil in heavily contaminated areas using a CeBr scintillation detector coupled with lead shielding

Kowatari, Munehiko; Tanimura, Yoshihiko

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 24, p.011037_1 - 011037_7, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.24.011037

Development of a simultaneous evaluation method of radioactivity in soil and dose rate using CeBr and SrI(Eu) scintillation detectors for environmental monitoring

Kowatari, Munehiko; Tanimura, Yoshihiko; Kessler, P.*; Neumaier, S.*; Roettger, A.*

Progress in Nuclear Science and Technology (Internet), 6, p.81 - 85, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.15669/pnst.6.81

Correction factors for attenuation and scattering of the wall of a cylindrical ionization chamber in the 6-7 MeV high-energy photon reference field

Kowatari, Munehiko; Zutz, H.*; Hupe, O.*

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 178(1), p.48 - 56, 2018/01

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncx073

In high energy photon reference fields the value of the air kerma rate is determined by using ionization chambers. From the charge collected inside the ionization chamber the dose can be calculated using a set of calibration and correction factors according to ISO 4037-2. A crucial parameter is the correction for the attenuation and scattering of the primary radiation due to the chamber wall. This parameter can be determined using Monte Carlo calculations. The evaluation of the factor was performed for a commercially available ionization chamber of the type Victoreen 550-3 under different build-up conditions. The results were verified by measurements in the R-F high energy photon fields according to ISO 4037-1 at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).

Assessment of equivalent dose of the lens of the eyes and the extremities to workers under nonhomogeneous exposure situation in nuclear and accelerator facilities by means of measurements using a phantom coupled with Monte Carlo simulation

Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Hagiwara, Masayuki*; Kowatari, Munehiko; Nishino, Sho; Sanami, Toshiya*; Iwase, Hiroshi*

Proceedings of 14th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association (IRPA-14), Vol.3 (Internet), p.1188 - 1195, 2017/11

http://www.irpa.net/docs/IRPA14%20Proceedings%20Volume%203.pdf

The equivalent doses to the lens of the eye and extremities for radiation workers should be assessed properly to ensure that the dose limits are not exceeded. Recently, the following two issues has pressed demand on more appropriate evaluation of the equivalent doses of the lens of the eye and extremity. One is the new occupational dose limit for the lens of the eye the ICRP recommended. The other is growing demand on handling of highly activated materials in the maintenance works of an accelerator and contaminated materials during the decommissioning works of nuclear facility, which increases the potential exposure risk to the extremities to a wider variety of radio-nuclides. Since the points to be assessed for the exposures to the lens of the eye and the extremities are apart from the trunk, the homogeneity of the radiation fields would be significantly impact on the assessment of these equivalent doses. However, there has been no sufficient and available method to identify the nonhomogeneous situations systematically in terms of the eye lens or extremity monitoring. The goal of this study is to provide the framework to identify the nonhomogeneous exposure situations. In order to fulfil this purpose, newly proposed indices to represent the homogeneity were calculated by Monte Carlo simulation incorporated with mathematical phantom, verifying the benchmark measurements. Important parameters that significantly impact on these indices were also shown from the various trials of calculations of homogeneity indices.

A Radioisotope neutron source and its application for dosimetry

Kowatari, Munehiko

Hamon, 27(3), p.109 - 112, 2017/08

https://doi.org/10.5611/hamon.27.3_109

A various kinds of radioactive neutron sources have been developed since neutron had been first discovered. The reactions which are mainly taken advantage for generating neutrons as radioactive neutron source are (,n) reaction, (,n) reaction and nuclear fission reaction. Only Am-Be and Cf neutron sources are now available due to reliable reproducibility of neutron emission, long half-lives and less disturbing ray emission. Both are designated as a "reference neutron source" by ISO 8529 series describing principle of establishment of neutron calibration field. Total neutron emission rate from neutron source must be well defined in terms of sophisticated method by national metrological laboratory. Correction factor for anisotropic emission from cylindrical-shaped neutron source must be experimentally determined for neutron fluence rate at a point of test in the calibration laboratory.

Influence of different types of phantoms on the calibration of dosemeters for eye lens dosimetry

Yoshitomi, Hiroshi; Kowatari, Munehiko

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 170(1-4), p.199 - 203, 2016/09

https://doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncv499

Both cylinder and slab phantoms have been recommended for the calibration phantoms for eye lens dosimetry in the |IAEA TECDOC. This study aims to investigate the influence of these phantoms on the calibration of dosemeters for eye lens dosimetry. In order to fulfill the purpose, the backscatters of photons and electrons from practically used water-filled phantoms were evaluated by calculations and experiments. Calculations showed cylinder phantom and slab phantom were found to well-simulate the effect of backscattered photons within 10% and 5%, respectively. It was also found that a cylinder phantom had 10% lower backscattered effect over the range of 50-100 keV. Due to this, the measured calibration factors of cylinder phantom for non-filtered Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Radio-Photo Luminescence (RPL) dosemeters increased by 20% and 10%, respectively when compared to the slab phantom. For electrons, no difference was found between cylinder and slab phantoms.