Cavity ionization chamber responses in the JAEA and the NMIJ high-energy photon reference fields for radiation protection

A dosimeter should ideally be calibrated in a reference field with similar energy and doserate to that which the dosimeter is being used to measure. Environments around nuclear reactors and radiation therapy facilities have high-energy photons with energies exceeding that of⁶⁰Co gamma rays, and controlling exposure to these photons is important. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency and National Metrology Institute of Japan have high-energy reference fields with energies above several megaelectronvolts for different types of accelerators. Their reference fields have different fluence-energy distributions. In this study, the energy dependencies of the two-cavity ionization chambers, which are often used by secondary standard laboratories, were experimentally and computationally evaluated for each high-energy field. These results agreed well within the relative expanded uncertainties (<i>k</i>= 2), and their capabilities for air kerma measurements in each high-energy reference field were confirmed. Therefore, the capabilities of the air-kerma measurements were verified in the two high-energy reference fields.