This standard establishes specific requirements for portable radiation protection instruments used for detection and measurement of levels of ionizing radiation fields or levels of radioactive surface contamination.
For purposes of this standard, portable radiation protection instruments are those battery-powered instruments that are carried to a specific facility or location for use.
NOTE--These instruments are normally held during operation.
Count rate meters and sealers, when used with an appropriate probe for quantifying activity, can be considered portable radiation protection instruments and treated as a single unit for the purposes of this standard. Specific requirements for calibration of low-range [i.e., near background to 10µSv/h (1 mrem/h)]1 portable survey instruments will be detailed in ANSI N323B (currently under development). Specific requirements for all air monitoring instruments will be detailed in ANSI N323C (currently under development). Specific requirements for installed instruments that measure dose or dose equivalent, or dose rate or dose equivalent rate, and AC powered instruments used only to detect the presence of radioactive material contamination will be detailed in ANSI N323D (currently under development).
Radiation protection instrumentation provides direct readout of, or readout proportional to, dose or dose equivalent, dose rate or dose equivalent rate, or activity per unit area (i.e., effective probe area). Included are portable rate and integrating devices for beta, photon, and neutron radiations; and monitors for surface contamination (alpha, beta, and photon). Portable radiation protection instruments intended for use in underwater survey and monitoring are included in this standard. Personnel dosimeters (including electronic pocket dosimeters and hybrid pocket dosimeters/dose equivalent rate meters) and environmental monitoring instruments, other than portable instruments used to measure rad/h or rem/h levels, are outside the scope of this standard. Radon monitoring instruments are not within the scope of this standard. Since special-purpose instrumentation, such as emergency post-accident radiological monitors, may also fall under the scope of one or more related ANSI standards, this standard is intended to supplement rather than replace these standards. For example, ANSI N42.17A-1989 [133] sets forth requirements for instrument performance. In general, radiation protection instrumentation is considered to cover the dose and dose equivalent rate ranges for survey meters of 10µGy/h to 10 Gy/h (1 mrad/h to 1000 red/h) and 10µSv/h to 10 Sv/h (1 mrem/h to 1000 rein/h), and activity-per-unit-area ranges for surface contamination monitors of 2 Bq/100 cm2 to 20 000 Bn/100 cm2 (120 dpm/100 cm2to 1.2 x 106 dpm/100 cm2).
Throughout this standard, three verbs have been used to indicate tile degree of rigor intended for each specific criterion. The word shall is used to denote a requirement. The word should is used to denote a recommendation. The word may is used to denote a permissible practice.