Neutron response study of two CR-39 personal dosemeters with air and Nylon converters

A neutron personal dosemeter using CR-39 as a detector and hydrogenated materials as proton converters for fast neutron detection plus an air layer for thermal neutron detection is being developed in our laboratory. To increase the CR-39 response to thermal neutrons, the air converter was substituted with Nylon in some dosemeters. Several dosemeters with these two configurations were mounted on a water-filled phantom and exposed under different incidence angles (0∘, 30∘ and 60∘) to: (i) Three ISO neutron sources (241Am-Be, bare 252Cf and moderated 252Cf with Cd shielding), and (ii) two realistic neutron sources (SIGMA and moderated 252Cf) at the IRSN (Cadarache) facilities. The irradiated detectors were electrochemically etched and evaluated in order to determine their dose equivalent response in terms of Hp(10,α). The results obtained are compared to those obtained from Monte Carlo simulations using the MCNPX code.