ISS protocol for EPR tooth dosimetry

The accuracy in Electron Paramagneetic Resonance (EPR) dose reconstruction with tooth enamel is affected by sample preparation, dosimetric signal ampl itude evaluation and unknown dose estimate. Worldwide efforts in the field of EPR dose reconstruction with tooth enamel are focused on the optimizatio n of the three mentioned steps in dose assessment. In the present work, the protocol implemented at ISS in the framework of the European Community Nuc lear Fission Safety project "Dose Reconstruction" is presented. A combined mechanical-chemical procedure for ground enamel sample preparation is used. The signal intensity evaluation is carried out with powder spectra simulat ion program. Finally, the unknown dose is evaluated individually for each s ample with the additive dose method. The unknown dose is obtained by subtra cting a mean native dose from the back-extrapolated dose. As an example of the capability of the ISS protocol in unknown dose evaluation, the results obtained in the framework of the 2nd International Intercomparison on EPR t ooth enamel dosimetry are reported. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righ ts reserved.