Performance testing of extremity dosimeters -- pilot test

A working group of the Health Physics Society Standards Committee (HPSSC) has issued a draft standard for extremity dosimeters. To determine the appropriateness of the proposed standard, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) has conducted three separate evaluations of the performance by processors of extremity dosimeters. The dosimeters were tested in each of the irradiation categories specified in the draft standard: high-energy photons (general and accident dosimetry); low-energy photons (general and accident dosimetry); beta particles, neutrons (first and second evaluations only, neutron category was dropped for the last evaluation); and a mixture category. In the first evaluation only about 60% of the processors met the draft standard's performance criteria for accuracy and precision. The second evaluation showed an overall improvement of 15% to 18%, but most processors were still unable to meet the performance criteria consistently in all irradiation categories. After these evaluations, PNL suggested several changes to the draft standard, including redefining some of the test categories and making the tolerance levels of the criteria more consistent with those in the standard for whole-body dosimetry. This report summarizes the third evaluation, which yielded an overall pass rate of 87%. Suggestions are given to render the draft standard generally more consistent withmore » the criteria for whole-body dosimetry.« less