Solid thermoluminescent dosemeter of sodium tetraborate and brazilian fluoride sensitive to thermal neutrons

The techniques of compacting sodium tetraborate and natural fluoride mixtures were studied in this work, with the aim of producing a solid dosimeter sensitive to thermal neutrons. The production procedure involves the vitrification of the sodium tetraborate, the grinding, mixture, cold pressing and the sinterization of the pellets. A special arrangement was built for irradiation where paraffin was used as moderator for neutrons from a 241Am-Be source. Two different mass ratios of sodium tetraborate and flourite showed a linear thermoluminescent response to the neutron fluence in the range of 1.0 to 7.0 x 108 n (sub)tcm-2 . Solid dosimeters, manufactured from natural fluorite and sodium chloride, showed a response to gamma radiation similar to the response of the dosimeters sensitive to neutrons. These dosimeters are need to identify the proportion of thermoluminescent response due to gamma radiation present in a neutron field. (author)