Catalogue of dose rate constants for more than 400 radionuclides in terms of ambient dose H∗ and comparison of figures to ambient dose equivalent H∗(10).

ABSTRACT

In 2020, the International Commission on Radiation Units & Measurements ICRU has released Report 95 on "Operational Quantities for External Radiation Exposure". This publication introduced a new measurand, namely ambient dose H∗, as the operational quantity for external exposure to be applied in the future replacing ambient dose equivalent H∗(10). It should be noted that this change will make it necessary to adjust previously used constants and coefficients or at least to review them with regard to the new measurand. Therefore, this recommendation represents a significant cut in implementation of radiation protection systems. The revision of all previously valid factors makes it possible to develop a consistent data set. The combination of experience gained in the last decades with more extensive data sets (e.g. on the spectra of individual radionuclides) with comparatively large computing power allows the definition of optimized data collections serving as input for Monte Carlo methods. Therefore, this publication is intended to lay a suitable foundation consisting of dose rate constants for more than 400 radionuclides concerning the future measurand ambient dose H∗ and to indicate differences to values related to the ambient dose equivalent H∗(10) used nowadays.