Recollections on Sixty Years of NBS Ionizing Radiation Programs for Energetic X Rays and Electrons

H William Koch

doi:10.6028/jres.111.035

Recollections on Sixty Years of NBS Ionizing Radiation Programs for Energetic X Rays and Electrons

J Res Natl Inst Stand Technol. 2006 Dec 1;111(6):443-60. doi: 10.6028/jres.111.035. Print 2006 Nov-Dec.

Author

H William Koch¹

Affiliation

¹ University of Denver, Denver, Colorado 80208.

Abstract

These recollections are on ionizing radiation programs at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) that started in 1928 and ended in 1988 when NBS became the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The independent Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS) was formed in 1992. This article focuses on how measurements and standards for x rays, gamma rays, and electrons with energies above 1 MeV began at NBS and how they progressed. It also suggests how the radiation processors of materials and foods, the medical radiographic and radiological industries, and the radiological protection interests of the government (including homeland security) represented in CIRMS can benefit from NIST programs.

Keywords: CIRMS; absorbed dose; betatron; electrons; ionizing radiation; rad; radiation processing; radiation protection; reference data; synchrotron radiation; x rays.