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The radiation environment encountered in space differs in nature from that on Earth, consisting mostly of highly energetic ions from protons up to iron, resulting in radiation levels far exceeding the ones present on Earth for occupational radiation workers. Since the beginning of the space era, the radiation exposure during space missions has been monitored with various active and passive radiation instruments. Also onboard the International Space Station (ISS), a number of area monitoring devices provide data related to the spatial and temporal variation of the radiation field in and outside the ISS. The aim of the DOSIS (2009–2011) and the DOSIS 3D (2012–ongoing) experiments was and is to measure the radiation environment within the European Columbus Laboratory of the ISS. These measurements are, on the one hand, performed with passive radiation detectors mounted at 11 locations within Columbus for the determination of the spatial distribution of the radiation field parameters and, on the other, with two active radiation detectors mounted at a fixed position inside Columbus for the determination of the temporal variation of the radiation field parameters. Data measured with passive radiation detectors showed that the absorbed dose values inside the Columbus Laboratory follow a pattern, based on the local shielding configuration of the radiation detectors, with minimum dose values observed in the year 2010 of 195–270 μGy/day and maximum values observed in the year 2012 with values ranging from 260 to 360 μGy/day. The absorbed dose is modulated by (a) the variation in solar activity and (b) the changes in ISS altitude.

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.)

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.