Quality assurance program for hand-foot contamination monitors

Abstract

To ensure that hand-foot contamination monitors meet the performance specifications of the manufacturers and comply with the standards of national and/or international radiation protection organizations, a quality assurance program (Q.A.) should be established. In this work, as a part of a Q.A, some quality control tests were developed and implanted following mainly a Brazilian standard (NBR-12604) and a British guidance (HS(G)49). The procedures were applied to an Eurisys/Sirius hand-foot contamination monitor. The following tests were performed: measurement of the response uniformity for alpha and/or beta contamination, measurement of instrument linearity, checks on beta rejection characteristics, periodical movement of the detector covering Mylar sheet and cleaning of the feet windows, teaching of staff members for good use of the instrument, and weekly controls of the background count rates. Each time sources were needed, circular and rectangular flat sources of Am-241 and Cl-36 were used.