Type testing of the Instadose Vue and Instadose Vue Beta personal dosemeters

Introduction

Ionizing radiation has many useful applications in the medical field, nuclear field, industry and research. However, the use of ionizing radiation also leads to occupational exposure of radiation workers. Since radiation exposure can lead to detrimental health effects, it is important to follow up the radiation dose to which these radiation workers are exposed. This is usually done by means of personal dosemeters. At SCK CEN the Dosimetry Laboratory provides personal dosemeters for more than 10 000 radiation workers, analyses these dosemeters and calculates, checks and reports the measured occupational radiation doses. This service is recognized as an official dosimetry service by FANC and is accredited according to ISO 17025 by BELAC. In order to stay competitive and to provide high quality service and precise dose assessment, it is important to keep up with the latests technological developments. Therefore, it is foreseen to introduce two novel dosemeter types: Instadose Vue and Instadose Vue Beta. Before they can be introduced it is important that these dosemeter types are thouroughly tested to guarantee that they perform sufficiently well. This can be done by performing type tests in a Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory according to the relevant standards and by performing additional scientific studies to investigate any potential quality issues.

Objectives

In this thesis the student will perform type testing of the Instadose Vue and Instadose Vue Beta dosemeters according to the IEC 61526:2024 standard. Tests will be performed on the dosemeter response variation as function of dose, dose rate, radiation type, energy and impact angle, temperature, humidity and light exposure. Additional long term humidity exposure tests will be performed because of the existence of such effects in previous Instadose dosemeter types. The student will plan the irradiations, assist the irradiation laboratory staff during the irradiations, analyze the data and report the results. The results will be compared with the test report received from the manufacturer. This work will be essential for the introduction of the new dosimetry systems in the Dosimetry Laboratory and to obtain the accrediation and approval of these systems.