Hair 32P measurement for body dose mapping in non-fatal exposures to fast neutrons

Dosimetry bioassay methods are the backbone of a personal dosimetry in criticality accidents. Although methods like hair dosimetry and the use of activation foils (e.g., S-32) have been employed for decades, capabilities of different techniques, effects of hair type and neutron spectrum on the dose response, sensitivity and uncertainties of different techniques, etc., need more investigations. For this reason, the use of the S-32(n,p)P-32 reaction and hair samples for estimating non-fatal doses from fast neutrons was studied. The experiments were carried out with the hair samples attached on a RANDO phantom in a Cf-252 neutron field, in the dose range of about 0.05-1.15 Gy. In addition, the adequate post-accident preparation for hair samples including optimum conditioning and timing were investigated. Experimental results prove the good sensitivity and merit of the method for neutron quantification in the mentioned dose range for which other bioassay methods are of poor resolution and sensitivity. A rough estimation of the dose-response curve for Iranian hair was also derived.