RETROSPECTIVE DOSIMETRY WITH CERAMICS

This paper reviews recent progress that has been made in the applicati on oi luminescence techniques with ceramic materials to the problem of dose reconstruction at: Hiroshima and Nagasaki; areas downwind of the Nevada Test Site; regions of Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine contaminated by fallout from Chernobyl; settlements along the Techa River affected by releases from the Mayak facility at Chelyabins k; Kiisa, Estonia where a stolen Cs-137 irradiator source was discover ed. Luminescence has an increasingly important role ig radiological he alth studies at such sites because of the ability of the method to mea sure dose retrospectively in areas where radiation monitoring was lack ing or sporadic following the incident. Commonly produced ceramics suc h as brick, tile and porcelain fittings and artefacts have been used t o determine the integrated external gamma radiation dose (the transien t dose). Evaluation of the reliability and accuracy with which the tra nsient dose can be estimated when it approaches and drops below the le vel of the integrated natural background dose (< 50 mGy for ceramic sa mples of age 20-30 y) is the subject of current research. In addition to various improvements in the performance of the experimental techniq ues and understanding of the luminescence properties of the minerals, other developments include improved integration with the requirements of dose reconstruction by the combined use of luminescence and computa tional modelling. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.