Performance of personnel film dosemeter exposed to lightly filtered x-ray beams

Usually personal dosemeters for individual monitoring of workers are calibrated in X and gamma reference radiations adopted worldwide. As workers are rarely exposed to radiation beams similar to those used in the calibration, it is needed to know the influence of the energy variation in the dosemeter response. Thirty dosemeters of the dosimetry system of the Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear were irradiated at the University of Wisconsin Radiation Calibration Laboratory in lightly filtered x-ray beams. The performance of the dosimeter showed that, in spite of the trend to underestimate the true dose value in about 10%, all dosemeters had a satisfactory response, considering the international acceptable accuracy limits for individual monitoring. (author)