Study of minimum detection limit of TLD personnel monitoring system in India

Personnel monitoring of radiation workers in India is carried out using a thermoluminescence dosemeter (TLD) system based on CaSO4:Dy Teflon TLD disc. The dose due to occupational exposure for a majority of radiation workers is very small and hence is reported as zero. In view of this the detection of low levels of occupational dose over and above a variable background assumes great importance. The present values of reporting levels are based on the standard deviations of annealed dosemeters and therefore are fixed irrespective of period of use and background radiation levels. The validity of these levels is investigated under laboratory conditions. The laboratory values of standard deviations cannot be used as an indication of the imprecision that occurs during service. Therefore, the validity of the reporting levels is also investigated for control dosemeters used in routine service. (authors)