Fluence-to-dose confusion regarding external stochastic dose determination within the DOE complex.

Abstract

The Department of Energy's (DOE) occupational radiation protection dose limits are specified in 10 CFR 835 (hereafter referred to as 'regulation'). Ambiguity in the regulation regarding designation of dose and fluence-to-dose conversion factors leads to confusion and disagreement regarding the appropriate choice of conversion factors. Three primary dose quantities of relevance are absorbed dose, D, quality factor, Q, and the product of those, called dose equivalent, H. The modifier Q is intended to express the long-term fatal cancer causing potential of different radiation types and generally increases with energy for neutrons. For photons, Q is close to unity regardless of energy. In principle, H could be estimated by incorporating a phantom and relevant Q values in a radiation-transport model. In practice, this would entail too much model complexity and computer time. The evaluator of H instead relies on pre-calculated energy-dependent fluence-to-dose conversion factors. Three primary sets of fluence-to-dose conversion factors are commonly used to determine stochastic dose for neutrons and photons: (1) ANSI/ANS-6.1.1-1977 that incorporates the NCRP-38 data for neutrons and sets based on Claiborne and Wells for photons, (2) ANSI/ANS -6.1.1-1991 that are based on and nearly identical to the neutron and photon sets in ICRP -51, and (3) neutron and photon sets in ICRP-74. The first set is maximum H values in a 30-cm diameter cylinder phantom for neutrons and in a 30-cm thick slab phantom for photons. The second set is effective dose equivalent, HE, derived from an anthropomorphic phantom by summing the products of tissue dose equivalents, HT, and tissue weighting factors, w{sub T}. The third set is effective dose, E, also derived from an anthropomorphic phantom by summing the products of H{sub T} and w{sub T}. E is functionally identical to H{sub E} except H{sub T} is the product of D and the radiation weighting factor, w{sub R}, which is similar in meaning to Q