The new remcounter LB6411: measurement of neutron ambient dose equivalent H*(10) according to ICRP60 with high sensitivity

Since the International Commission on Radiological Protection has issued in publication ICRP60 new recommendations on radiation protection quantities, in neutron monitoring there is now increasing interest in commercially available instruments optimized and calibrated for the measurement of ambient dose equivalent H*(10). Therefore within a joint cooperation between the Research Center Karlsruhe and EG&G Berthold the neutron-dose-rate meter LB6411 was newly developed. The detector system with integrated electronics has a ³He proportional counter tube centered in a moderating sphere. The response between thermal energies and 20 MeV was optimized with the help of extensive MCNP Monte-Carlo calculations The instrument has extremely high sensitivity of approximately 3 counts per nSv and can be used both as a portable or as a stationary neutron monitor. Fluence responses and angular dependencies had been measured in monoenergetic neutron beams provided by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunshweig, Germany. The ambient dose equivalent response of the LB6411 is reported over the whole energy range