Bonner sphere neutron spectrometry at spent fuel casks

For transport and interim storage of spent fuel elements from power reactors and vitrified highly active waste (HAW) from reprocessing, various types of casks are used. The radiation exposure of the personnel during transportation and storage of these casks is caused by mixed photon–neutron fields and, frequently, the neutron dose is predominant. In operational radiation protection, survey meters and even personal dosemeters with imperfect energy dependence of the dose-equivalent response are used, i.e. the fluence response of the devices does not match the fluence-to-dose equivalent conversion function. In order to achieve more accurate dosimetric information and to investigate the performance of dosemeters, spectrometric investigations of the neutron fields are necessary. Therefore, fluence spectra and dose rates were measured by means of a simple portable Bonner multisphere spectrometer (BSS). The paper describes briefly the experimental set-up and evaluation procedure. Measured spectra for different locations, types of casks and inventory are discussed. The spectra provide a basis to determine dose rates and other integral quantities with higher accuracy and for choosing suitable area monitors, respectively, to establish correction factors applied to the dosemeter reading.