Development of a spherical tissue equivalent proportional counter for neutron monitoring

A spherical tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) for neutron monitoring has been developed. It was properly designed to produce a uniform electric field intensity around the anode wire. An internal ²⁴¹Am alpha source was adopted for lineal energy calibration. The TEPC was characterized in terms of dose equivalent response in a standard ²⁵²Cf neutron field, and was tested with 2.45 MeV neutrons. Microdosimetric spectra, frequency mean lineal energy and dose-average mean lineal energy of 2.45 MeV neutrons were obtained and compared with FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation results. The measurement and simulation results agreed well. The mean quality factor and dose equivalent values evaluated from the 2.45 MeV neutron measurement were in good agreement with the recommended effective quality factor and ambient dose equivalent H^*(10), respectively. Preliminary results have proved the availability of the developed TEPC for neutron monitoring. (authors)