• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.143-154
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• 1999

Panasonic UD-809P type albedo neutron TL dosimeters mounted on a water phantom were used to measure neutron personal dose equivalent in a Korean nuclear power plant. From the measured TL readings, personal dose equivalents from thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons were evaluated by using a method adopted in a neutron dose calculation algorithm for Panasonic UD-809P type albedo neutron TL dosimeters, which was suggested in a Panasonic TLD System User's Manual. The results showed that personal dose equivalent from fast neutrons could not be adequately evaluated in a field with high thermal neutron fraction to be encountered in a nuclear power plant. This seems to be related to the incomplete incidence of albedo thermal neutrons to the TL dosimeters. In order to evaluate appropriately the personal dose equivalent from fast neutrons in the field condition, new method fer the neutron dose calculation algorithm was suggested. In this new method, neutrons are grouped into thermal neutrons and fast neutrons. For each neutron component, equations for TL response, sensitivity factor, calibration factor and personal dose equivalent were derived.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2022

Background: After the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) accident, a model was developed to estimate the external exposure doses for residents who were expected to return to their homes after evacuation orders were lifted. However, the model's accuracy and uncertainties in parameters used to estimate external doses have not been evaluated. Materials and Methods: The model estimates effective doses based on the integrated ambient dose equivalent (H^*(10)) and life patterns, considering a dose reduction factor to estimate the indoor H^*(10) and a conversion factor from H^*(10) to the effective dose. Because personal dose equivalent (H_p(10)) has been reported to agree well with the effective dose after the FDNPS accident, this study validates the model's accuracy by comparing the estimated effective doses with H_p(10). The H_p(10) and life pattern data were collected for 36 adult participants who lived or worked near the FDNPS in 2019. Results and Discussion: The estimated effective doses correlated significantly with H_p(10); however, the estimated effective doses were lower than H_p(10) for indoor sites. A comparison with the measured indoor H^*(10) showed that the estimated indoor H^*(10) was not underestimated. However, the H_p(10) to H^*(10) ratio indoors, which corresponds to the practical conversion factor from H^*(10) to the effective dose, was significantly larger than the same ratio outdoors, meaning that the conversion factor of 0.6 is not appropriate for indoors due to the changes in irradiation geometry and gamma spectra. This could have led to a lower effective dose than H_p(10). Conclusion: The estimated effective doses correlated significantly with H_p(10), demonstrating the model's applicability for effective dose estimation. However, the lower value of the effective dose indoors could be because the conversion factor did not reflect the actual environment.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.1991-1997
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• 2019

In this manuscript, we present a method for the direct calculation of an ambient dose equivalent (H^* (10)) for the external gamma-ray exposure with an energy range of 40 keV to 2 MeV in an electronic personal dosimeter (EPD). The designed EPD consists of a 3 × 3 ㎟ PIN diode coupled to a 3 × 3 × 3 ㎣ CsI (Tl) scintillator block. The spectrum-to-dose conversion function (G(E)) for estimating H^* (10) was calculated by applying the gradient-descent method based on the Monte-Carlo simulation. The optimal parameters for the G(E) were found and this conversion of the H^* (10) from the gamma spectra was verified by using ²⁴¹Am, ¹³⁷Cs, ²²Na, ⁵⁴Mn, and ⁶⁰Co radioisotopes. Furthermore, gamma spectra and H^* (10) were obtained for an arbitrarily mixed multiple isotope case through Monte-Carlo simulation in order to expand the verification to more general cases. The H^* (10) based on the G(E) function for the gamma spectra was then compared with H^* (10) calculated by simulation. The relative difference of H^* (10) from various single-source spectra was in the range of ±2.89%, and the relative difference of H^* (10) for a multiple isotope case was in the range of ±5.56%.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.371-381
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• 2023

Evaluating the effectiveness of the radiation protection measures deployed at the Centralized Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Ghana is pivotal to guaranteeing the safety of personnel, public and the environment, thus the need for this study. Radiagem^TM 2000 was used in measuring the dose rate of the facility whilst the personal radiation exposure of the personnel from 2011 to 2022 was measured from the thermoluminescent dosimeter badges using Harshaw 6600 Plus Automated TLD Reader. The decay store containing scrap metals from dismantled disused sealed radioactive sources (DSRS), and low-level wastes measured the highest dose rate of 1.06 ± 0.92 µSv·h^-1. The range of the mean annual average personnel dose equivalent is 0.41-2.07 mSv. The annual effective doses are below the ICRP limit of 20 mSv. From the multivariate principal component analysis biplot, all the personal dose equivalent formed a cluster, and the cluster is mostly influenced by the radiological data from the outer wall surface of the facility where no DSRS are stored. The personal dose equivalents are not primarily due to the radiation exposures of staff during operations with DSRS at the facility but can be attributed to environmental radiation, thus the current radiation protection measures at the Facility can be deemed as effective.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.725-733
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• 2023

The Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences has started a radiation epidemiological study, titled "Korean Radiation Worker Study," to evaluate the health effects of occupational exposure to radiation. As a part of this study, we investigated the methodologies and results of reconstructing organ-specific absorbed doses based on personal dose equivalent, H_p(10), reported from 1984 to 2019 for 20,605 Korean radiation workers. For the organ dose reconstruction, representative exposure scenarios (i.e., radiation energy and exposure geometry) were first determined according to occupational groups, and dose coefficients for converting H_p(10) to organ absorbed doses were then appropriately taken based on the exposure scenarios. Individual annual doses and individual cumulative doses were reconstructed for 27 organs, and the highest values were observed in the thyroid doses (on average 0.77 mGy/y and 10.47 mGy, respectively). Mean values of individual cumulative absorbed doses for the red bone marrow, colon, and lungs were 7.83, 8.78, and 8.43 mSv, respectively. Most of the organ doses were maximum for industrial radiographers, followed by nuclear power plant workers, medical workers, and other facility workers. The organ dose database established in this study will be utilized for organ-specific risk estimation in the Korean Radiation Worker Study.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.147-153
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• 1996

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI) conducted a intercomparison study for personnel dosimetry services in Korea to enhance the accuracy and precision of the dosimetry system. Nine types of dosimeters(6 TLD, 3 film badge) from 7 institutions took part in this intercomparison study. Each participant submitted 30 dosimeters including transit control for irradiations. Both TLDs and film badges were irradiated with Cs-137 gamma, Sr/Y-90 beta and 4 X-ray beams in ISO wide series. Four dosimeters were irradiated on phantom with same dose equivalent for each field category. The delivered dose equivalent was in the range of $0.1{\sim}10mSv$. The participants assessed the results of their dosimeter readings in terms of the ICRU operational quantities for personal monitoring, Hp(10) and Hp(0.07). Most participants except 1 dosimeter estimated the delivered dose equivalent with biases less than ${\pm}25%$ for Cs-137 and Sr/Y-90. But for X-rays, the biases exceeded ${\pm}35%$ in some cases bacause the dose evaluation algorithm was based on the ANSI N13.11 X-ray fields which are different from those given by ISO.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 1998

Domestic intercomparison study of the neutron personnel dosemeters was performed for the first time in Korea. Thirteen types of neutron dosemeters from twelve institutions took part in this intercomparison study and the $D_2O$ moderated Cf-252 source of KAERI was used for irradiation. Eight of the fifteen dosemeters submitted by each participant were divided into two groups and each group was irradiated with different doses of the simulated mixed fields of neutron and gamma. The participants assessed their dosemeter reading in terms of the personal dose equivalent, Hp(10), for both neutron and gamma dose. The ratio of the reported dose equivalent to the delivered dose equivalent for comparison between participants ranged from 0.55 to 1.34 for neutron, from 0.54 to 1.32 for gamma and from 0.75 to 1.20 for total dose. This intercomparison results show that all dosemeter processors, especially for neutron category, are able to pass the personnel dosemeter performance test which shall be enforced according to the ordinance of the MOST, No. 96-6.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.301-309
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• 2022

This work aims to establish some X-ray qualities recommended by the International Standard Organization (ISO) using the half-value layer (HVL) and H_p(10) dosimetry approaches. The HVL values of the following qualities N-60, N-80, N-100, N-150 and N-250 were determined using various attenuation layers. The obtained results were compared to those of reference X-ray beam qualities and a good agreement was found (difference less than 5% for all qualities). The GAMOS (Geant4-based Architecture for Medicine-Oriented Simulations) radiation transport Monte Carlo toolkit was employed to simulate the production of X-ray spectra. The characteristics HVLs, mean energy and the spectral resolution of simulated spectra have been calculated and turned out to be conform to the ISO reference ones (difference less than the limit allowed by ISO). Furthermore, the conversion coefficients from air kerma to personal dose equivalent for simulated and measured spectra were fairly similar (the maximum difference less than 4.2%).

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 1997

The individual dose equivalent, $H_p$, effective dose, E, and gender specific effective dose, $E^m$ and E$^f$, were evaluated using the male and female phantoms of MIRD type located in the radial gamma radiation field near a point source. The point sources were placed at the distances of 15, 40 and 100 cm in front of the body at different heights. Two radionuclides, $^{137}Cs$ and $^{131}I$, were selected for the illustrative examples. In terms of the gender specific effective doses, $E^f$ is higher than $E^m$ with a few exceptions, e.g. the case where the point source is at the height of reproductive organs, but the differences from the sex- averaged values are not significant enough to justify use of gender specific dose conversion factors for the radial gamma field. The ratios $H_p$/E were in the range of 1 to 3 depending on the source and dosimeter positions when the dosimeter is worn on the front surface of the torso covering from chest to lower abdomen, but varied from 0.34 to 6.5 in extreme cases. When it is assumed that the typical handling procedure of radioactive source material and the typical dosimeter position(on the chest) be respected, the dosimeters calibrated against the broad parallel field appear to provide estimates with acceptable errors for the effective dose of workers exposed to radial broad gamma field around a point source.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.128-136
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the difference of noise level according to noise measuring methods in the noisy working environments. Sound pressure level(SPL), equivalence sound level(Leq) and personal noise exposure dose(Dose) in the fifty-nine unit workplaces of the twenty-eight industries were measured and relating factors which were affected noise level were investigated. The results were as follows ; 1. The noise levels were $88.70{\pm}5.68dB(A)$ by SPL, $89.07{\pm}5.41dB(A)$ by Leq and $89.07{\pm}5.69$ by Dose. The differences of noise levels by three measuring methods were statistically significant(P<0.001) by repeated measure ANOV A. 2. Comparing with noise levels by general classes of noise exposure, noise levels of continuous noise were $89.14{\pm}5.19dB(A)$ by SPL, $89.45{\pm}4.65dB(A)$ by Leq and $90.04{\pm}5.09$ by Dose. Noise levels of intermittent noise were $87.90{\pm}6.52dB(A)$ by SPL, $88.40{\pm}6.63dB(A)$ by Leq and $90.10{\pm}6.80$ by Dose. The differences noise level of noise measuring methods by general classese of noise exposure were statistically not significant by repeated measure ANOV A. 3. Interaction between general classese of noise exposure and noise measuring methods for noise level was not statistically significant by repeated measure ANOVA. And the noise level by noise measuring methods were statistically significant by repeated measure ANOV A(P<.001) 4. Comparing with noise levels by unit workplace size, noise levels of large unit workplace were $90.73{\pm}5.87dB(A)$ by SPL, $91.32{\pm}5.50dB(A)$ by Leq and $91.82{\pm}6.06$ by Dose and noise levels of middle unit workplace were $88.31{\pm}5.26dB(A)$ by SPL, $88.41{\pm}4.83dB(A)$ by Leq and $89.69{\pm}5.05$ by Dose. And noise levels of small unit workplace were $94.89{\pm}4.10dB(A)$ by SPL, $85.35{\pm}4.11dB(A)$ by Leq and $86.87{\pm}4.98$ by Dose. The noise level differences of noise measuring methods by unit workplace size were statistically significant by repeated measure ANOV A(P<.05). 5. The noise level by noise measuring methods were statistically significant by repeated measure ANOV A(P<.001). But Interaction between workplace size and noise level measuring methods for noise level was not statistically significant by repeated measure ANOVA. According to the above results, there was a difference of the noise level among the three measuring methods. Therefore we must use the personal noise exposure dose using by noise dose meter, possible, to prvent occupational hearing loss in noisy working environment.