Data from the survivors of the atomic bombs serve as the major basis for risk calculations of radiation-induced cancer in humans. A controversy has existed for almost two decades, however, concerning the possibility that neutron doses in Hiroshima may have been much larger than estimated. This controversy was based on measurements of radioisotopes activated by thermal neutrons that suggested much higher fluences at larger distances than expected. For fast neutrons, which contributed almost all the neutron dose, clear measurement validation has so far proved impossible at the large distances (900 to 1,500 m) most relevant to survivor locations. Here, the first results are reported for the detection of 63Ni produced predominantly by fast neutrons (above about 1 MeV) in copper samples from Hiroshima. This breakthrough was made possible by the development of chemical extraction methods and major improvements in the sensitivity of accelerator mass spectrometry for detection of 63Ni atoms (refs 8-11). When results are compared with 63Ni activation predicted by neutron doses for Hiroshima survivors, good agreement is observed at the distances most relevant to survivor data. These findings provide, for the first time, clear measurement validation of the neutron doses to survivors in Hiroshima.
Those inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki who were affected by the A-bomb explosions, were exposed to a mixed neutron and gamma radiation field. Few years later about 120,000 survivors of both cities were selected, and since then radiation-induced late effects such as leukemia and solid tumors are being investigated in this cohort. When the present study was initiated, the fast neutron fluences that caused the neutron doses of these survivors had never been determined experimentally. In principle, this would have been possible if radioisotopes produced by fast neutrons from the A-bomb explosions had been detected in samples from Hiroshima and Nagasaki at distances where the inhabitants survived. However, no suitable radioisotope had so far been identified. As a contribution to a large international effort to re-evaluate the A-bomb dosimetry, the concentration of the radionuclide (63)Ni (half-life 100.1 years) has been measured in copper samples from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These measurements were mainly performed at the Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratory in Munich, Germany, by means of accelerator mass spectrometry. Because the (63)Ni had been produced in these samples by fast A-bomb neutrons via the reaction (63)Cu(n,p)(63)Ni, these measurements allow direct experimental validation of calculated neutron doses to the members of the LSS cohort, for the first time. The results of these efforts have already been published in a compact form. A more detailed discussion of the methodical aspects of these measurements and their results are given in the present paper. Eight copper samples that had been significantly exposed to fast neutrons from the Hiroshima A-bomb explosion were investigated. In general, measured (63)Ni concentrations decreased in these samples with increasing distance to the hypocenter, from 4 x 10(6 ) (63)Ni nuclei per gram copper at 391 m, to about 1 x 10(5 ) (63)Ni nuclei per gram copper at about 1,400 m. Additional measurements performed on three large-distant copper samples from Hiroshima (distance to the hypocenter 1,880-7,500 m) and on three large-distant copper samples from Nagasaki (distance to the hypocenter 3,931-4,428 m) that were not exposed significantly to A-bomb neutrons, suggest a typical background concentration of about 8 x 10(4 ) (63)Ni nuclei per gram copper. If the observed background is accounted for, the results are consistent with state-of-the-art neutron transport calculations for Hiroshima, in particular for those distances where the victims survived and were included in the life span study cohort.
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