Properties of Electrochemically Etched CR-39 Plastic for Fast Neutron Dosimetry

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Abstract
The neutron energy response of two types of CR-39 plastic, produced by American Acrylics (AA) and Pershore Moulding (PM) and processed electrochemically employing two etching steps at low and high frequency, was investigated theoretically and experimentally using monoenergetic neutron energies ranging from 144 keV up to 14.7 MeV and 252Cf neutrons. The calculations showed that the intrinsic energy response can be improved by using radiators of polycarbonate, CR-39 itself or polyethylene in front of the detector. Furthermore, the paper discusses long-term changes in background and response of pre-and post-irradiated detectors stored in air and in nitrogen gas over periods up to 430 days. For the PM material, the response decreased by -35% whereas the background increased by a factor of 2. The AA material remained practically unchanged in response and background for about a year of storage. The current quality of CR-39 plastics is unsatisfactory because the actual dose range will be significantly affected by variations in the background track density within individual sheets and sheets from the same production batch.

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