Dose measurements for characterization of a semi-industrial cobalt-60 gamma-irradiation facility

Cobalt-60 irradiation facility has been put into operation at the National Centre of Nuclear Sciences and Technology, Sidi-thabet, Tunisia. Its technical specifications were controlled by dosimetry commissioning experiments and compared to the data specified by the plant manufacturer. Installation qualification has been carried out to measure absorbed dose distribution in the irradiation cell and products. Two dosimeter systems were used for measurements: Red and Amber Perspex and Cellulose Triacetate (CTA). The regions of minimum and maximum absorbed dose within a homogeneous dummy product (sawdust) with a bulk density of 114kg/m3 and the dose uniformity ratio were determined. The isodose curves and the three-dimensional views were built using an automatic geostatistical gridding method, the kriging method.