Assessment of personnel absorbed dose at an 18-MeV dual beam cyclotron facility

Highlights: • The study assesses radiation dose in workers at a medical accelerator facility. • The effective dose average over the study period was 1.47 mSv. • More than 65% of the workers received radiation doses • We recommend that workers wear a ring dosimeter to measure dose to the extremities. This study aimed to investigate occupational radiation exposure in cyclotron workers in Saudi Arabia and compare the doses received with the International Commission of Radiological Protection dose limits. We conducted a retrospective study of Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) in 144 workers in an 18-MeV dual beam (proton and deuteron) cyclotron facility in Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2019. The workers included physicists, engineers, chemists, radiochemists, technicians, operators, and quality control chemists. Individual dosimetry was assessed using thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) comprised of Harshaw detector crystals with LiF:Mg, Ti elements. The mean Hp (10) and Hp (0.07) doses averaged over the 5-year study period for all workers were 1.47 ± 0.15 and 1.54 ± 0.16 mSv, respectively. No worker received doses exceeding the annual dose limits. We recommend that workers wear ring dosimeters to estimate the dose to the extremities and dosimeters use an advanced type of absorber to discriminate between different types of radiation.