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The ROSPEC device is a multi-detector system, which has been designed by Bubble Technologies Industries (BTI at Chalk River, ON, Canada) to assess neutron spectra, and hence neutron dose quantities, at workplace fields. It is made up of six gaseous proportional counters that detect neutrons via the elastic (n,p) scattering (four hydrogenous counters) and with the ³He(n,p)T reaction (two ³He-filled counters). Results of the calibration of a similar rotating spectrometer (ROSPEC) have been described by Rosenstock et al.(1). For energy and fluence calibration purposes, measurements were performed with the accelerator for metrology and neutron applications in external dosimetry (AMANDE) facility at the Laboratory of Neutron Metrology and Dosimetry (Institute of Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety, IRSN, France). This facility provides monoenergetic neutron radiation fields from 2 keV to 20 MeV. Two kinds of experiments were carried out. First, the ROSPEC was used in its rotational mode for the ISO energies. Then, each detector was irradiated with all the available neutron energies, in a well defined position with the rotation of the device stopped. The energy values of the neutron beam were calculated using the TARGET code. A BC501-A liquid scintillation spectrometer provided the fluence values for energies beyond 1.2 MeV, a methane-filled SP2 counter from 800 keV to 1.4 MeV and an H2-filled SP2 counter from 144 to 800 keV. Reference data for 70 keV monoenergetic neutrons were obtained using the IRSN Long Counter. Results showed that the ROSPEC device was in agreement with the absolute neutron fluences within 10%. Moreover, the new energy calibration factors are in good agreement with those derived by BTI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Institute for Radiological protection and Nuclear Safety was engaged in the EC funded EVIDOS project to provide reference spectrometry data using its Bonner sphere system. The data were processed by means of two unfolding codes, NUBAY and GRAVEL, both provided by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt. The NUBAY program, based on Bayesian parameter estimation methods, assumes a parameterised spectrum and provides posterior probability distributions for the parameters. The code GRAVEL, an iterative algorithm based on SAND-H, was used with various default spectra, among them the NUBAY solution. The BS measurements were used to establish the neutron fluence energy distributions and reference values for the neutron ambient dose equivalent. As this quantity depends strongly on the high energy neutrons, a sensitivity analysis was done by unfolding the BS data with GRAVEL using the NUBAY solution spectrum as default with various changes in the parameters of the high energy peak. This new method of analysing Bonner sphere data allowed the determination of reliable neutron spectra, as well as a very good estimate of the corresponding integral quantities with small associated uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), albedo dosimeters are used for personal neutron dosimetry. Spectrometric measurements allow determination of reference dosimetric values of realistic neutron fields to be used for calibration of albedo dosimeters. The Laboratory for Neutron Metrology and Dosimetry from the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) was in charge of characterising neutron fields in the plant at two representative points with high neutron and gamma dose rate. Calibration of the dosimeters in the workplace used to be performed only by a spherical survey meter. Based on the reference dosimetric values, the Plant Dosimetry Laboratory has verified the response of albedo dosimeters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]