Skip Navigation


Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on September 3, 2009
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2009 136(4):256-261; doi:10.1093/rpd/ncp161
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
136/4/256    most recent
ncp161v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rühm, W.
Right arrow Articles by Weitzenegger, E.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Rühm, W.
Right arrow Articles by Weitzenegger, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Continuous measurement of secondary neutrons from cosmic radiation at mountain altitudes and close to the north pole—a discussion in terms of H*(10)

W. Rühm*, V. Mares, C. Pioch, G. Simmer and E. Weitzenegger

Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Institute of Radiation Protection, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany

* Corresponding author: werner.ruehm{at}helmholtz-muenchen.de

Two Bonner sphere spectrometers (BSSs) have recently been installed to measure secondary neutrons from cosmic radiation continuously, one at the environmental research station ‘Schneefernerhaus’ at an altitude of 2650 m in Germany and the other at the Koldewey station close to the North Pole in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. After unfolding, both systems provide neutron fluence energy distributions as a function of time. Based on these distributions and on fluence-to-dose conversion coefficients, mean ambient dose equivalent rate values of 75.0 ± 2.9 nSv h–1 and 8.7 ± 0.6 nSv h–1 were obtained for October 2008, respectively (quoted uncertainties represent standard deviations of 124 values obtained during the measurement period). Ambient dose equivalent rates measured by means of an extended rem counter at the Schneefernerhaus agree with those based on the BSS neutron energy distributions within 5 %. The ambient dose equivalent rate was also calculated based on simulated FLUKA neutron energy distributions in the atmosphere. Even without detailed modelling of the local environment, an agreement better than 30 % was obtained between the ambient dose equivalent rate based on the FLUKA distributions and those based on the BSS measurements at the Schneefernerhaus, for neutrons above about 20 MeV. This agreement is expected to be even better if the influence of the local environment on the measured neutron fluence energy distribution will be calculated.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.