Comparison of Retrospective Luminescence Dosimetry With Computational Modeling in Two Highly Contaminated Settlements Downwind of the Chernobyl NPP

Abstract

The cumulative absorbed dose in bricks collected from six buildings in two heavily contaminated settlements (137Cs > 2,000 kBq m(-2)) located downwind of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was determined using luminescence techniques by six laboratories. The settlements, Vesnianoje in Ukraine and Zaborie in Russia, are located in, respectively, proximal and distal locations relative to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The luminescence determinations of cumulative dose in brick, after subtraction of the natural background dose, were translated to absorbed dose in air at a Reference Location using conversion factors derived from Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport. The simulations employed source distributions inferred from contemporary soil contamination data and also took into account heterogeneity of fallout deposition. This translation enables the luminescence determinations to be compared directly with values of cumulative absorbed dose obtained by computational modeling and also other dose reconstruction methods. For each sampled location the cumulative dose was calculated using three deterministic models, two of which are based on the attenuation of dose-rate with migration of radionuclides in soil and the third on historic instrumental gamma dose-rate data. The results of the comparison of the two methods indicate overall agreement within margins of +/-25%. The methodology developed is generally applicable and adaptable to areas contaminated by much lower levels of radioactive fallout in which brick buildings are found.

An assessment of cumulative external doses from Chernobyl fallout for a forested area in Russia using the optically stimulated luminescence from quartz inclusions in bricks

“…The initial level (in 1986) of 137 Cs ground contamination in the nearest settlement Novie Bobovichi was officially estimated to ca. 1.1 MBq m À2 (Balonov et al, 1999;Ramzaev et al, 2006b). The contamination occurred with rain.…”

“…Besides the quite extensively studied Chernobylcontaminated areas in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine (Hütt et al, 1993;Vischnevekii et al, 1993;Bailiff, 1999;Banerjee et al, 1999Banerjee et al, , 2000Bailiff et al, 2000Sato et al, 2002), the luminescence techniques have been used to support the cumulative dose assessments in areas and sites affected by nuclear explosions in different countries (Ichikawa et al, 1987;Hoshi et al, 1989Hoshi et al, , 1998Haskell et al, 1994;Takada et al, 1999;Hashimoto et al, 2006;Ramzaev and Göksu, 2006). The evaluation of the cumulative doses to the residents of settlements influenced by radioactive discharges from the Mayak facility in Urals, Russia is another example where luminescence techniques in combination with a modelling approach were very useful in refining the existing dosimetry estimates (Meckbach et al, 1996;Bougrov et al, 1998;Göksu et al, 2002;Jacob et al, 2003;Taranenko et al, 2003;Balonov et al, 2006).…”

BiodosEPR-2006 consensus committee report on biodosimetric methods to evaluate radiation doses at long times after exposure

“…Such conversion (Bailiff et al, 2004a(Bailiff et al, , b, 2005 is usually based on Monte Carlo simulation of the transport of gamma radiation emitted by radionuclides in soil and the deposition of energy in the bricks that make up the walls. The simulations allow coefficients to be derived that relate absorbed dose in a specified volume of brick to dose in air at a reference location, leading to the derivation of conversion factors.…”

“…TL and OSL have been used in a limited number of epidemiologic studies including many of the major dose reconstructions carried out to date, e.g., for A-bomb survivors (Young and Kerr, 2005;Ichikawa et al, 1996Ichikawa et al, , 1987Nagatomo et al, 1988Nagatomo et al, , 1991Hoshi et al, 1989), Nevada test site exposures (Haskell et al, 1994), for the Chernobyl accident (Stepanenko et al, 2003;Bailiff et al, 2004aBailiff et al, , 2005 and more recently, for Semipalatinsk nuclear test site exposures (Bailiff et al, 2004b;Stepanenko et al, 2006a-c. Göksu et al, 2006Sato et al, 2006;Simon et al, 2005;Takada et al, 1999). In all cases, building materials were evaluated for TL or OSL signals.…”

Radiation dose to providers of brachytherapy with microsources of 125I for prostate cancer

“…Independently of this, the data from calibration of the sources were compared with measurements performed in the laboratories at GSF (Germany), University of Durham (Great Britain), and Hiroshima University (Japan) and showed good mutual agreement within the framework of the combined dosimetric studies on territories contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident and harmed by the nuclear tests performed on the Semipalatinsk test site [6][7][8][9].…”