What is a Permanent Record Dosimeter?

[Meltdown]

At a tabletop exercise for a nuke plant drill last week the guy from the State passed out PRD's. He swore they weren't TLD's, but he couldn't tell me anything about how they worked. Has anybody heard of these?

I'll try to get a manufacturer's name.

[Rennhack]

At a tabletop exercise for a nuke plant drill last week the guy from the State passed out PRD's. He swore they weren't TLD's, but he couldn't tell me anything about how they worked. Has anybody heard of these?

I'll try to get a manufacturer's name.

At a tabletop exercise for a nuke plant drill last week the guy from the State passed out PRD's. He swore they weren't TLD's, but he couldn't tell me anything about how they worked. Has anybody heard of these?

I'll try to get a manufacturer's name.

PRD is a NASA acronym for "Personal Radiation Dosimeter".  The PRD provided visual read-out of accumulated radiation dose to each crewman as the mission progressed. The PRD was approximately the size of a cigarette pack, and pockets were provided in the flight coveralls, as well as in the spacesuit, for carrying the PRD. The PRD sensor was a 7.1 cc tissue equivalent ion chamber, with a range of 0 to 1000 rads in 0.01 rad increments, and it weighed 0.4 lbs. The operational life of the PRD was 2000 hours.

NASA's PRD is an electronic dosimeter, so it is not the "PRD" your friend is refereeing to.  "PRD" can be anything, another source uses that term for 'passive radiation dosimeter'.  So the "PRD" label really doesn't mean anything.  It's just the states acronym for the permanent record.

The 'permanent' part of your "PRD" is the key.  TLDs, OSLDs, and the old style film badges are all examples of permanent records.  Electronic dosimeters have not yet been approved as a replacement to the permanent record criteria.

Your PRD is probably an OSLD. (Seeing as he claimed they were not TLD's)  OSLD's are hexagonal, there are pictures in the article linked to below. I think Luxel is the only maker of the OSLDs.

Check out my article entitled:
"Everything you ever wanted to know about Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLDs) but were afraid to ask..."  It tells you about TLDs, OSLDs, the different types, what they are made of, etc.

http://www.nukeworker.com/study/hp/deleted/fundamentals/tlds/tlds.htm

[Meltdown]

They were Landauer OSLD's - thanks. I'd never seen one before.