The importance of the direction distribution of neutron fluence, and methods of determination

For the estimation of non-isotropic quantities such as personal dose equivalent and effective dose, and for the interpretation of the readings of personal dosemeters, it is necessary to determine both the energy and direction distributions of the neutron fluence. In fact, for workplace fields, the fluence and dose-equivalent responses of dosemeters and the relationships of operational and protection quantities, are frequently more dependent on the direction than on the energy distribution. In general, the direction distribution will not be independent of the energy distribution, and simultaneous determination of both may be required, which becomes a complex problem. The extent to which detailed information can be obtained depends on the spectrometric properties and on the angle dependence of the response of the detectors used. Methods for the determination of direction distributions of workplace fields are described.