Abstract
Nowadays, the absorbed dose to water for kilovoltage X-ray beams is determined from standards in terms of air-kerma by application of international dosimetry protocols. New standards in terms of absorbed dose to water have just been established for these beams at the LNELNHB. A specific calorimeter was developed to do measurements at low depth in water, in order to fulfill the reference conditions required by the international dosimetry protocols for medium-energy X-ray. This new calorimeter was used to measure the absorbed dose rate in water at a depth of 2 cm for six medium-energy X-ray reference beams with a tube potential from 80 kV to 300 kV. The relative standard uncertainty obtained on the absorbed dose rate by water calorimetry is lower than 0.8%, whereas the one given by application of protocols based on airkerma is around 2.5%.