Page 212 - 00. Complete Version - Progress Report IPEN 2014-2016

212 Nuclear Science and Technology | Progress Report

logical Protection, and adopted by the Brazil- the binding material to make the 6 mm diam-
ian Nuclear Energy Commission, according to eter pellets (Figure 13). The CaSO4:Dy pellets
the type of the radionuclide and the practice. are destined to the individual, area and envi-
Continuous improvements in IPEN’s installa- ronmental monitoring through the thermo-
tions which handle radioactive materials have luminescence dosimetry. Besides, they could
required actualization in safety programs. be applied to the high doses, retrospective and
clinical dosimetry as well as solid state dosim-
During the period from January 2014 to De- etry research. Pellets of several materials such
cember 2016, approximately 2,400 direct mea- as quartz, emerald, topaz, jade for instance
surements of both whole-body and thyroid can be also produced by means of the same
contents have been carried out in workers as referred method. The requests of CaSO4:Dy
well as the internal dose evaluation. The com- crystals and pellets from many institutions
mitted effective dose higher than the annual have been attended by the laboratory.
limit on intake in this period was not achieved.
In addition, the LMIV have participated in a re- Routine External Dosimetry
search group of the National Council for Sci-
entific and Technological Development which The external dosimetry laboratory applies
involves eight other institutions. the thermoluminescent (TL) technique and
CaSO4:Dy based dosimeters developed at IPEN
Dosimetric material production (Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucle-
- pellets of CaSO4:Dy ares) to carry out individual, area and envi-
ronmental monitoring.

The individual monitoring service is autho-
rized by CNEN (Brazilian Nuclear Energy Com-
mission) regulatory committee, CASEC (Essays
and Calibration Services Evaluation Commit-
tee) and it completely satisfies CNEN’s regula-
tory norms, besides presenting a brake in IP-
EN’s quality control system, being responsible
for the external exposure monitoring of all oc-
cupationally exposed individuals at IPEN, oth-
er autarchies, governmental offices and even
some private facilities.

The area and environmental monitoring,
which are not under the scope of any regula-
Figure 15- CaSO4:Dy dosemeters.
tory office, are also performed in different soci-
ety sectors, such as research institutes, univer-
The Dosimetric Materials Laboratory developed sities and private foundations and companies.
and patented the CaSO4:Dy crystals growth
system and the method to produce the Teflon High Dose Dosimetry
® sintered pellets. The CaSO4:Dy crystals grow
in the sealed system and are cold pressed with Alanine/Electron Paramagnetic Resonance

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares