Recent Developments and Performance of Survey Instruments for the Monitoring of Weakly Penetrating Radiations

Dose rate monitoring for weakly penetrating radiation is often attempted by modifying conventionally designed survey meters. This has led to an understanding of the requirements for such monitoring, but has not resulted in commercially available instruments which utilize this knowledge. Survey instruments that have internal corrections for source geometry have also been developed. Spectrometers that separate beta radiation from photon radiation using coincidence techniques have been developed and are described. Contamination monitoring for some nuclides also involves monitoring of weakly penetrating radiation. Such monitoring requires the use of special counters and specialized techniques. 34 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs.