A Study of Dose Rate Probes for the País Vasco Environmental Radioactivity Automatic Network

There are many types of probes available on the market for measuring ambient dose equivalent rates (ADERs), which makes intercomparison exercises essential to ensure data comparability and reliability. This study evaluated the performance of four widely used and similarly priced probes-the Reuter-Stokes ionization chamber, the RX04L from BITT, the MIRA from ENVINET, and the LB9360 from Berthold. The Reuter-Stokes ionization chamber was also taken as reference. Measurements were continuously conducted in Bilbao, northern Spain, during the period 2017-2021 under background conditions as well as during episodes of heavy rainfall and extreme temperatures. Results show that the BITT proportional counter exhibited the highest consistency with the Reuter-Stokes chamber under all meteorological conditions, and excellent stability even during extreme conditions. The Berthold probe displayed similar trends, but systematically overestimated dose rates, while the Geiger-Müller-based detector showed acceptable agreement under rainfall, but clear instability during temperature extremes. These findings highlight the importance of probe selection in environmental radioactivity networks as well as the use of reliable instruments for integration into modernized radiological surveillance systems.