Study of neutron and γ discrimination with TEPC

Measurements of neutron dose and dose equivalent in mixed radiation field should discriminate neutron and gamma. According to the characteristic of neutron and gamma linear energy induced in detector, the tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) could discriminate γ fraction from total spectrum measured in mixed radiation field. In this paper, the microdosimetric spectra were measured with homemade cylindrical TEPC in monoenergy neutron radiation field produced by the 5SDH-2 accelerator. Based on the pure γ microdosimetric spectrum measured in the ¹³⁷Cs γ reference radiation field, the neutron and γ discriminations were studied in ²⁵²Cf, ²⁴¹Am-Be neutron reference radiation fields. The pure neutron dose equivalent rates of ²⁵²Cf, ²⁴¹Am-Be sources agree well with reference ambient dose equivalent. The results show that it is practicable to measure absorbed dose and dose equivalent with TEPC in neutron and γ mixed field. (authors)