Radiation measurements around X-ray cabinet systems.

Security personnel who operate X-ray units for the control of hand luggage and personal items at airports are generally not under dosimetric surveillance. A significant increase in the number of inspected items per passenger, due to rigorous air traffic security measures, raises a question of extended exposure of these workers to scattered X-ray radiation. A new approach to investigating directions of breaches of scattered X-ray radiation in the area near to an X-ray cabinet system, which is based on using active electronic dosemeters is presented. Influence of the increase in the number of inspected items in time on the dose rate is described. Time-dependent dose rates have showed a very good correlation with passengers undergoing security control prior to boarding an airplane. Measurements confirmed that an increase in the dose rate, coinciding with rush hours, was caused by scattered radiation passing through incompletely closed lead curtains. It is found that the doses at the entrance to the inspection tunnel are 50% higher than those at the exit, which is a consequence of inherent operational characteristics of X-ray cabinet systems.