FUTURE-DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NRPB PADC NEUTRON PERSONAL MONITORING SERVICE

NRPB has been operating an etched track neutron personal monitoring se rvice for ten years. This has, since its inception, used an etch regim e which is a combination of a chemical etch and a 2 kHz electrochemica l etch. Processing at most other laboratories has settled on either a chemical etch or a two frequency electrochemical etch. These other typ es of processing each have significant advantages, but attempts to int roduce them for routine processing at NRPB have also shown them to hav e significant disadvantages. Recent improvements in the manufacture of PADC have, however, changed the situation markedly, leading to the pr ospect of a viable two frequency electrochemical etch for routine pers onal monitoring.