Calorimetry is the best technique available to perform absolute measurement of absorbed dose. Graphite or water calorimeters are mainly used as reference for absorbed dose in water in most of the national metrology laboratories involved in ionizing radiations. LNE-LNHB has a long experience with graphite and tissue-equivalent calorimeters. Graphite calorimeter is nowadays the reference dosimeter for photon and electron beams at LNE-LNHB. Associated with a transfer procedure from graphite to water, it leads to the reference of absorbed dose to water which is the reference quantity for radiotherapy. A water calorimeter is being developed currently in order to compare different ways to establish the standards of absorbed dose to water at LNE-LNHB.

Most of the acquisition chains used in radionuclide metrology are based on NIM modules. These analogue setups have been thoroughly tested for decades now, becoming a reference in the field. Nevertheless, the renewal of ageing modules and the need for extra features both call for the development of new acquisition schemes based on digital processing. In this article, several technologies usable for instrumentation are first presented. A review of past and present projects is made in the second part, highlighting the fundamental role of dead-time management. The last part is dedicated to the description of two digital systems developed at LNE-LNHB. The first one has been designed for the instrumentation of a NaI(Tl) well-type crystal set-up, while the second one is used for the management of three photomultipliers in the framework of the TDCR method and as a part of the development of a digital platform for coincidence counting.

In the field of radionuclide metrology, the TDCR method is a primary technique based on liquid scintillation using a threephotomultiplier instrumentation. The application of the TDCR model classically implemented in laboratories is investigated in the case of low-energy deposition in the liquid scintillator. For that purpose, the condition of stochastic independence between photomultipliers is introduced in order to express the classical probabilistic relations used for the detection efficiencies of coincidences. Experimentally observed in the case of ³H standardization, the time dependence arises when the coincidence resolving time is shorter than the time distribution of scintillation photons. The geometric dependence is also investigated because of the sensitivity of coincidence counting with the position of light emission inside the volume of the liquid scintillator. For that purpose, a new TDCR modeling using the Monte Carlo code Geant4 has been implemented in order to simulate the propagation of photons from their creation in the optical chamber to the production of photoelectrons in liquid scintillation counter. In both cases of stochastic dependence, the influence on the calculation of detection efficiencies and thus on the activity determination is presented. The new TDCR-Geant4 model was also developed to take into account Cherenkov emission; it has been applied to confirm the emission of Cherenkov photons subsequently created by Compton scattering in the photomultiplier windows. Using the TDCR-Geant4 model, a new primary technique is also presented by implementing the TDCR method using the Cherenkov emission. This new technique has been applied to the standardization of the short-lived radiopharmaceutical ¹¹C (T_1/2 about 20 min).

Individual dosimetry for exposure to beta particles in radiation protection deals essentially with the dosimetry of skin, i.e. the directional and individual dose equivalents at 0.07 mm depth for weakly penetrating radiation as indicated by the publications of ICRU and the ISO 6980. This article describes the procedure used to establish the primary standard in terms of absorbed dose to tissue of LNE-LNHB.

Monte Carlo codes have been widely used at the Laboratoire national Henri Becquerel (LNE-LNHB) for the last twenty years. They contribute to the establishment of national dosimetric references. In this paper, two main dosimetric quantities are calculated using Monte Carlo modelling in the field of medical physics: the absorbed dose and the kerma. Further discussions of the problems encountered are also presented.

The manganese bath technique is the reference method for the calibration of neutron source emission rates. It is used to calibrate neutron sources using radionuclides in terms of neutron emission rate under 4p sr. The neutron source to be measured is immersed in a manganese sulphate solution where the emitted neutrons interact with the elements of the bath. In a typical configuration, approximately half of the neutrons lead to the creation of ⁵⁶Mn via the ⁵⁵Mn(n, γ) capture reaction. This radionuclide has a half-life of approximately 2.6 h and the bath reaches saturation when the number of nuclei decaying is equal to the number of nuclei created per unit time. The neutron emission rate from the source can then be deduced from the ⁵⁶Mn activity at saturation, assuming proper modelling of the nuclear reactions occurring within the bath. The manganese bath facility has been recently refurbished in order to comply with appropriate safety and radioprotection regulations. This has lead to the upgrading of both the measurement methodology and the modelling of the bath, and a study on the development of a new detector for the on-line measurement of the manganese activity was developed. This new detector uses the 4πß-γ coincidence measurement method. The beta channel consists of photomultipliers tubes for the detection of Cerenkov light, and the γ channel uses a scintillation detector. The advantage of this measurement method is that it allows the determination of the bath activity without any prior calibration. A detector has been built and the results obtained have been compared to those from a primary measurement method already in use at LNE-LNHB. Furthermore, a comparison of the Monte-Carlo simulation results using GEANT4, MCNPX and FLUKA has been undertaken. This comparison revealed some discrepancies between the codes and uncertainty factors, such as the modeling of the neutron emission and the choice of the cross-section library.

In this paper we present the developments conducted at LNE-LNHB with the aim of improving the knowledge of the shapes of beta spectra, concerning the theoretical calculation of the spectra as well as their experimental determination by means of cryogenic detectors. The theoretical calculation comprises a screening correction that avoids the non-physical discontinuity present in the standard correction, as well as a correction of the exchange effect that is usually not taken into account and has a strong impact on the spectra of ⁶³Ni and ²⁴¹Pu. These calculations are compared with experimental spectra obtained with metallic magnetic calorimeters, a class of cryogenic detectors. The beta emitter is enclosed in the absorber of these detectors which offer high detection efficiency, high energy resolution and a very low energy detection threshold. The measured spectra of ⁶³Ni and ²⁴¹Pu confirm the correctness of the theoretical spectra, in particular the calculation of the exchange effect down to very low energies that have been explored for the first time.

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%.

The monitoring of environmental radioactivity is important for public health protection. In France, environmental radioactivity is specifically monitored by a network of certified laboratories. Indeed the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) delivers three to five year governmental agreements to each laboratory provided that it succeeds in proficiency tests (PTs) organized by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). To ensure a direct traceability chain in radioactivity measurements, the Laboratoire National Henri Becquerel (LNE-LNHB), as the French national laboratory for radionuclide metrology, has been organizing national PTs for more than 40 years. LNE-LNHB also regularly realizes specific PTs to train the laboratories to the regulatory tests of IRSN. Most tests are based on aqueous solutions but there is a growing demand for tests on solid matrices to be measured by γ-spectrometry. Measurement of radionuclides from environmental samples includes a wide variety of matrix compositions and densities. Since 2009, LNE-LNHB is working on the production of suitable calibration reference materials to improve the traceability of environmental radioactivity measurements in France. To address this issue, LNELNHB intends to produce mixed γ-ray reference materials with a known mass activity and a composition as representative as possible of real environmental samples. The use of such materials will also improve the calibration of γ-spectrometry measurement systems due to a more accurate determination of the self-attenuation correction by measuring a known sample whose composition is close to the real one. This paper describes the development of the preparation protocol and the characterization of traceable matrices, spiked with various γ-ray emitters. A PT exercise has been organized with a low density matrix produced. The results of the participants are mentioned in this article.

For radioprotection, the reference quantity is air kerma. For an cobalt-60 beam, the reference dosimeter is a cavity ionization chamber whose volume is measured. The new LNE-LNHB reference is based on six different chambers instead of one as was done previously. Although every new ionization chamber was treated as much as possible in the same way (manufacturing, measurements of volumes, wall effect calculations, current corrections), a maximum discrepancy of 0.2% was observed between the final measurement results from each chamber. The final value of the air kerma rate in reference conditions was determined as the mean value of the measurement results from all six chambers. Among the different factors whose determination is necessary to calculate the air kerma rate, some are considered independent of or common to all the graphite-walled ionization chambers (for example, mean energy expended by an electron to produce an ion pair in dry air), while others vary for each chamber (for example, air cavity ionic collection volume). Considering that the uncertainties of the individual ionizationchamber measurement results seem slightly underestimated, the uncertainty on the mean of the six chamber-dependent factors products was taken equal to the standard deviation of the sample composed of the six chamber-dependent factors products (0.08%). Compared to the previous standard, the air kerma rate of the ⁶⁰Co photon beam would then increase by 0.09% and the air kerma rate uncertainty would drop from 0.38% to 0.31%. This article describes the procedure used to establish the primary standard in terms of absorbed dose to tissue of LNE-LNHB.