Cavity ionization chamber responses in the JAEA and the NMIJ high-energy photon reference fields for radiation protection.

Abstract

The dosimeter response should be calibrated in a reference field near the user's radiation environment. Environments around nuclear reactors and radition therapy facilities have high-energy photons with energies exceeding that of60Co gamma rays, and controlling exposure to these photons is important. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) have high-energy reference fields with energies above several MeV for different types of accelerators. Their reference fields have different fluence-energy distributions. In this study, the energy dependencies of the two-cavity ionization chambers, which are often used by secondary laboratories, were experimentally and computationally evaluated for each high-energy field. These results agreed well with relative expanded uncertainties (k= 2), and their capabilities for air kerma measurements in each high-energy reference field were confirmed. Therefore, the capabilities of the air-kerma measurements can be verified in the two high-energy reference fields. .