PNNL

Abstract

United States Air Force (USAF) aircrew fly at altitudes and for durations where doses from cosmic radiation are significant enough to warrant monitoring. This study evaluated a candidate radiological monitoring system for USAF aircrew, the Thermo Scientific EPD-N2. The evaluation consisted of characterizing the device in a well-characterized radiation field at a CERN accelerator, and aboard a USAF aircraft. The performance of the EPDs was evaluated by comparison to accepted values for dose at the CERN facility, comparison to the value calculated by flight dose software and comparison to the value estimated by a tissue-equivalent proportional counter aboard the aircraft. This study recommends that a correction factor of be applied to EPD-N2 measurements aboard aircraft flights. The uncertainty in this correction factor is 11.8%.