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During the past years, several smartphone applications have been developed for radiation detection. These applications measure radiation using the smartphone camera complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor sensor. They are potentially useful for data collection and personal dose assessment in case of a radiological incident. However, it is important to assess these applications. Six applications were tested by means of irradiations with calibrated X-ray and gamma sources. It was shown that the measurement stabilises only after at least 10-25 min. All applications exhibited a flat dose rate response in the studied ambient dose equivalent range from 2 to 1000 μSv h(-1). Most applications significantly over- or underestimate the dose rate or are not calibrated in terms of dose rate. A considerable energy dependence was observed below 100 keV but not for the higher energy range more relevant for incident scenarios. Photon impact angle variation gave a measured signal variation of only about 10 %., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The SCK·CEN has carried out neutron field characterisation campaigns at several nuclear reactors. The main goal of these measurement campaigns was to evaluate the performance of different neutron personal dosemeters. To be able to evaluate the performance of neutron personal dosemeters in terms of Hp(10), knowledge of the directional distribution is indispensable. This distribution was estimated by placing several personal dosemeters on all six sides of a slab phantom. The interpretation and conversion of this information into a reliable value for Hp(10) requires great care. The data were analysed using three methods. In the first approach, a linear interpolation was performed on three perpendicular axes. In the other two approaches, an icosahedron was used to model the angle of incidence of the neutrons and a linear interpolation or a Bayesian analysis was performed. This study describes the limitations and advantages of each of these methods and provides recommendations for their use to estimate the personal dose equivalent Hp(10) for neutron dosimetry., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The present personal neutron dosemeters still need local correction factors to be able to provide accuracy comparable with photon dosemeters. Characterisation of the local neutron field is an indispensable part of neutron dosimetry to obtain such correction factors. It is often overlooked that besides characterisation in the neutron energy also the directional distribution of neutrons plays a crucial part in this characterisation. The authors have done such characterisation in the energy and angle for four workplace fields in Paks NPP. For this a relatively simple approximation method was used using the Nprobe for the energy distribution and measurements on the six sides of the slab phantom with personal dosemeters for the directional distribution. This allowed one to estimate a reference neutron Hp(10) rate and to compare it with the response of several neutron personal dosemeters., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Near a nuclear reactor or a fuel container, mixed neutron/gamma fields are very common, necessitating routine neutron dosimetry. Accurate neutron dosimetry is complicated by the fact that the neutron effective dose is strongly dependent on the neutron energy and the direction distribution of the neutron fluence. Neutron field characterisation is indispensable if one wants to obtain a reliable estimate for the neutron dose. A measurement campaign at CANDU nuclear power plant located in Cernavoda, Romania, was set up to characterise the neutron fields in four different locations and to investigate the behaviour of different neutron personal dosemeters. This investigation intends to assist in choosing a suitable neutron dosimetry system at this nuclear power plant.

Passive detectors, as albedo or track-etch, still dominate the field of neutron personal dosimetry, mainly due to their low-cost, high-reliability and elevated throughput. However, the recent appearance in the market of electronic personal dosemeters for neutrons presents a new option for personal dosimetry. In addition to passive detectors, electronic personal dosemeters necessitate correction factors, concerning their energy and angular response dependencies. This paper reports on the results of a method to evaluate personal dosemeters for workplace where neutrons are present. The approach here uses few instruments and does not necessitate a large mathematical workload. Qualitative information on the neutron energy spectrum is acquired using a simple spectrometer (Nprobe), reference values for H*(10) are derived from measurements with ambient detectors (Studsvik, Berthold and Harwell) and angular information is measured using personal dosemeters (electronic and bubbles dosemeters) disposed in different orientations on a slab phantom.