EURADOS Intercomparison 2009 for extremity dosemeters

Eurados was created to be a scientific network of European laboratories involved in research in radiation dosimetry. The objective is to advance the scientific understanding and the technical development of the dosimetry of ionising radiation by stimulating collaboration between European facilities.

As a result of this work, Eurados has successfully executed the EURADOS Intercomparison 2008 for whole body dosemeters. As a next step in the programme Eurados now is running the EURADOS Intercomparison 2009 for extremity dosemeters.

Scope

The intercomparison concerns to extremity dosemeters intended to estimate H_p(0,07). The dosemeters may be of type ring, stall or wrist, designed to be worn on fingers, wrist or ankle, and are used routinely in individual monitoring of exposed workers.

Irradiations, restricted to photons and betas, will be performed in European accredited irradiation facilities in terms of H_p(0,07) in the following ranges:

1.       Photon energy: 16 to 662 keV

2.       Beta mean energy: 250 to 935 keV

3.       Dose: 0,5 mSv to 1 Sv

4.       Angle of incidence: ± 60º

The dosemeters will be irradiated with both photon and beta sources but the participant may choose to include only the results for photons or betas in the Certificate of Participation by marking this option the the application form.

Intercomparison procedure

The candidate participant fills in the Application Form (). The Organization Group registers the applications. The Organization Group informs the candidate participant about the acceptance of their application.

The participant receives an invoice from Eurados in order to transfer a participation fee of 1250 Euro to Eurados bank account. The fee was calculated on a non-profit base and any surplus money will be used primarily for the purpose of harmonisation in individual monitoring and maintaining the expertise in this field within Eurados.

After receipt of the participation fee, the Organization Group provides the participant with detailed instructions and guidelines for preparing and labelling the dosemeters and for sending the dosemeters to the coordinating laboratory (NRG Arnhem, Netherlands).

For this intercomparison a total of 28 dosemeters from each participant IMS is needed:

1.       22 dosemeters for irradiation

2.       4 transit dosemeters for background control

3.       2 spare dosemeters

After performing irradiations, the coordinating laboratory sends back the dosemeters to the participant for readout. Within one month after receiving the dosemeters, the participant sends back the results in terms of H_p(0,07) in a response form provided by the Organization Group.

After all participants have submitted their results, the Organization Group sends the participant the irradiation data and response values. Revision of results after distribution of the irradiation data is only possible in case of errors made by the irradiation lab or intercomparison organization (to be judged by the Organization Group).

After confirmation of the results, Eurados provides the participant with a “Certificate of Participation” including information on the irradiation qualities, doses imparted, response values and overall uncertainties for all irradiations (or for photons or betas only if this option was chosen in the application form).

Intercomparison report

The Organization Group will prepare a report summarizing the results of the intercomparison. The report will mention the name of the IMS that participated and the type of dosemeter used but the results will be given anonymously.

This report will be presented in a meeting that will be organized to show and discuss the results among the Organization Group and the participants. Date and place of this meeting will be announced later this year.

Intercomparison results will be considered by Eurados as confidential data and only will be used with statistical purposes for technical and scientific studies. The Organization Group will sign a confidentiality clause and both the identity of the participants and the reference data will be known only to a minimum of persons within the Organization Group.

Time Schedule