Laser Illuminated Etched Track Scattering (LITES) Dosimetry System

Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) has developed an etched track foil (CR-39) reader for neutron dose between 0 and 50.0 mSv. Currently, the US Department of Energy mandates general employee annual exposure not to exceed 50.0 mSv (5 rem). At LANL, due to a non-linear response at higher exposures, accepted practice only uses an Autoscan 60 system up to 3 mSv. The LITES system, however, has demonstrated linear response to 50 mSv, where the proprietary design measures the amount of laser light scattered by the etched tracks, proportional to dose. A collection of calibrated foils was counted by an Autoscan 60 and the LITES prototype, and the Autoscan 60 showed good linearity when counting exposure up to about 15 mSv, but not for higher exposures. From 0 to 50 mSv, the Autoscan 60 had a correlation coefficient of R2=0.941 and the LITES system has R2=0.991.