THE USE OF CERAMICS FOR RETROSPECTIVE DOSIMETRY IN THE CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE

The use of luminescence techniques with ceramic materials is playing a n increasingly important role in retrospective dosimetry. Thermolumine scence measurements with ceramics at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in are as downwind of the Nevada Test Site have shown that dose estimates may be obtained which are of value in comparisons with the results of mod elling calculations. The Chernobyl accident has provided a recent exam ple where retrospective dosimetry is urgently required in order to adv ance epidemiological studies of the population. This paper examines so me of the approaches which are being used with luminescence techniques to provide dose estimates for samples from Pripyat and how they can b e used to contribute to the wider problem of dose reconstruction in th e 30 km Exclusion Zone.