Requirements for Area Monitoring and Individual Dosemeters Based on Experiences in Operational Health Physics

The development of active monitors for measuring neutron radiation for radiological protection purposes will be reviewed on the basis of experience in fuel processing plants and around reactors. Current instrument developments, in response to the new quantities proposed by ICRU, will be discussed. For the future, increases in quality factor and reduction in dose limits will be examined for their implications for instrument design and on the need for supplementary information on neutron spectra and on the angular response of individual dosemeters. Although exposure to neutrons is limited to relatively few individuals compared with gamma ray exposure, nevertheless these workers work in critical parts of the fuel cycle and so accurate measurements of their total dose equivalent need to be made to avoid unnecessarily expensive measures to reduce this exposure.