Deficiencies of active electronic radiation protection dosemeters in pulsed fields

Nowadays nearly all radiation fields used for X-ray diagnostics are pulsed. These fields are characterised by a high dose rate during the pulse and a short pulse duration in the range of a few milliseconds. The use of active electronic dosemeters has increased in the past few years, but these types of dosemeters might possibly not measure reliably in pulsed radiation fields. Not only personal dosemeters but also area dosemeters that are used mainly for dose rate measurements are concerned. These cannot be substituted by using passive dosemeter types. The characteristics of active electronic dosemeters determined in a continuous radiation field cannot be transferred to those in pulsed fields. Some provisional measurements with typical electronic dosemeters in pulsed radiation fields are presented to reveal this basic problem.