Intercomparison of gamma ray, X ray, and fast neutron dosimetry using alanine detectors

Alanine detectors manufactured in Poland and in Denmark were intercompared by exposing them to 60Co γ ray beams at the centre of Oncology, Cracow, and at Riso National Laboratory. Both types of detectors were exposed to a beam of 250 kVp X rays and to a cyclotron-produced fast neutron beam of mean energy 5.6 MeV at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Cracow, and measured using ESR spectrometry at Cracow and Riso. The typical accuracy with which Polish and Danish alanine detectors can measure gamma doses is about 2%. Measurements of effectiveness, relative to 60Co γ rays, of the alanine detector yielded: for 250 kVp X rays 0.82 ± 0.06 (Polish detectors) and 0.82 ± 0.03 (Danish detectors); for fast neutrons 0.63 ± 0.04 (Polish detectors) and 0.62 ± 0.03 (Danish detectors), where all sources of error are included. (author)