First Calibrations of Alanine and Radio-Photo-Luminescence Dosemeters to a Hadronic Radiation Environment

Alanine and Radio-Photo-Luminescence (RPL) dosimeters are used to monitor radiation doses occurring inside the tunnels of all CERN accelerators including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). They are placed close to radiation sensitive machine components like cables or insulation of magnet coils to predict their remaining lifetime. The dosimeters are exposed to mixed high-energy radiation fields. However, up to now both dosimeter types are calibrated to 60Co-photons only. In order to study the response of RPL and alanine dosimeters to mixed particle fields like those occurring at CERN's accelerators, an irradiation campaign at the CERN-EC High-Energy Reference field Facility (CERF-field) was performed. Moreover, the dosimeters were first time calibrated to a proton radiation field of a constant momentum of 24 GeV/c. In addition to the experiment FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations were carried out, which provide information concerning the energy deposition and the radiation field at the dosimeter locations.