Neutron dosimetry at low and high fluences with CR-39

In the Laboratory of Nuclear Microanalysis, we have developed two techniques for neutron dosimetry; the first for low fluence, the second for high fluence. These two techniques use a Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD): the CR-39. The low fluence technique is based on the measurement of etched tracks resulting from a neutron-proton conversion. A Monte Carlo code performs a simulation of the (n,p) collision in the detector, and a numerical computer code of latent track etching allows the evaluation of the etched track parameters. The object of this is to obtain characteristics of a neutron fluence from the measured etched track parameters. When there is a high fluence and high doses, CR-39 is unsuited for optical microscopy analysis. This is because of track overlapping which makes it impossible to carry out counting and exploitation. We have therefore developed a new method permitting the reading of samples based on the measurement of the angular distribution of coherent light (He-Ne laser) transmitted through the irradiated etched SSNTD. We present these two techniques and our initial results.