Radiological protection — X and gamma reference radiation for calibrating dosemeters and doserate meters and for determining their response as a function of photon energy — Part 1: Radiation characteristics and production methods

This document specifies the characteristics and production methods of X and gamma reference radiation for calibrating protection-level dosemeters and doserate meters with respect to the phantom related operational quantities of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU)[5]. The lowest air kerma rate for which this standard is applicable is 1 μGy h?1. Below this air kerma rate the (natural) background radiation needs special consideration and this is not included in this document.

For the radiation qualities specified in Clauses 4 to 6, sufficient published information is available to specify the requirements for all relevant parameters of the matched or characterized reference fields in order to achieve the targeted overall uncertainty (k = 2) of about 6 % to 10 % for the phantom related operational quantities. The X ray radiation fields described in the informative Annexes A to C are not designated as reference X-radiation fields.

NOTE The first edition of ISO 4037-1, issued in 1996, included some additional radiation qualities for which such published information is not available. These are fluorescent radiations, the gamma radiation of the radionuc