Luminescence dosimetry in a contaminated settlement of the Techa River valley, Southern Urals, Russia

Retrospective and emergency dosimetry in response to radiological incidents and nuclear mass-casualty events: A review

“…Jacob et al (2003) concluded that, although not significantly affecting the median value of DX calculated for each height, some of the overdispersion could be attributed to systematic errors arising from one of the techniques applied. However, more recent work on bricks from Muslymovo (Woda et al, 2011a), has shown that elevated ambient temperatures in this region may cause the cumulative dose to be underestimated due to thermal fading of the 210 °C TL peak where it is used for the dosimetry. The extent of this effect depends on the thermal history of the volume from which the granular quartz was extracted, and consequently it is expected to be greatest where brickwork is exposed to a high levels of insolation.…”

“…However, unlike the samples from the heavily shielded locations, an analysis of the DT values indicated no overdispersion, suggesting the absence of a significant systematic difference between OSL and TL determinations of the dose in this case. Following up this work, Woda et al (2011a) tested further samples from the mill and focused on making a more detailed assessment of DBG. Recognizing that care should be taken to avoid making uncritical use of published geometry factors to estimate the gamma dose rate, they applied MC radiation transport simulations to calculate the gamma dose rate as a function of depth in the wall of the mill arising from lithogenic sources located in the ground adjacent to the sampled wall and within the wall fabric.…”

“…OSL techniques have tended to be preferred when dating of bricks from ancient structures and within NW Europe they have been found to produce reliable and accurate results for buildings of the last 1000 years in a temperate climatic region. Woda et al (2011a) also examined the issue of variation in dose registered by bricks at different heights to glean more information regarding the time-averaged source configuration that is required when calculating a dose conversion factor. Applying a SAR OSL measurement procedure, they obtained good precision (average overall uncertainty in DT of ∼4%) and excellent concordance (2.5% standard deviation) between four adjacent bricks at the same height (4 m), contrasting the variability encountered at Metlino when using a TL procedure .…”

“…By comparing their measured depth-dose profiles obtained with bricks at a height of 4 m with calculated profiles, Woda et al (2011a) concluded that their measured profiles, with a half-depth of ∼6 cm, more closely resembled a calculated profile for a semi-infinite distribution of sources (662 keV) on the ground (6 g cm −2 ) than the calculated profile for sources distributed within a strip 16-18 m from the wall (simulating deposition on the riverbanks) that has a half-depth of ∼8 cm. It is worth noting here that the calculated profiles for a riverbank distribution of sources (662 keV) and a semi-infinite distribution on the ground of higher energy sources (1600 keV) are similar (Göksu et al, 2002a), and the latter is potentially relevant in view of the presence of short-lived isotopes such as 140 Ba/ 140 La within the inventory of releases from the Mayak facility (Mokrov, 2004).…”

Potential and limitations of the 210°C TL peak in quartz for retrospective dosimetry

“…Quartz in the grain size fraction of 140e200 mm was extracted using standard separation techniques, including treatment with HCl for 1 h in an ultrasonic bath and 40% HF for 40e60 min (Aitken, 1985). Further details of the sample locations are given in Woda et al (2011).…”