Development of thermoluminescent dosimeters

• Grant number: 02/08013-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Duration: January 01, 2003 - December 31, 2006
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: José Carlos Borges
• Grantee: José Carlos Borges
• Host Company: MRA Indústria de Equipamentos Eletrônicos Ltda
• City: Ribeirão Preto

Abstract

This project aims to industrialize a product that is compulsorily used by more than a dozen direct users, namely the institutions which provide radiological monitoring services, and around 50 thousand indirect users: workers exposed to ionizing radiation. The principal means of controlling these exposures is the individual monitoring and vigilance over levels of radiation in work areas by means of detectors called dosimeters. The most commonly used currently are made from thermoluminescent materials, known as TLDs, the only manufacturer of which in Brazil is the Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research, Ipen, with which MRA has signed a technology transfer agreement. In the first phase of the project, innovations were concentrated on the solution of common obstacles to technology transfer processes which, in the case of CaSO4: Dy pellets, include aspects such as the assembly of installations and equipment in the pilot plant, the chemical techniques of obtaining the raw materials that make up the pellet and the quality control of the thermoluminescent characteristics of the dosimeters. The second phase will confront the technological problems currently experienced by those dosimeters, among which the sourcing of a more transparent and stable aggregating material (gels that can vitrify) to carry the thermoluminescent crystals, the incorporation of new dopants for refinement of the radiological sensitivity and new thermic treatment techniques to optimize the reusability of the dosimeter. (AU)