Accident Dosimetry Using Tooth Enamel

Dosimetry of residents at Chernobyl reactor accident28,29 and Techa River fuel processing plant has been reported.29,92 The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report, Health consequences of the Chernobyl accident in which the extensive application to determine the accumulated dose of the residents up to 80-100 mGy with the accuracy of + 50 mGy. The measured dose appeared to be higher than 200 mGy.30 

Soil samples at the epicentre of the nuclear bomb explosion site in Semipalatinsk93 were measured with ESR. Although the dependence on the distance from the epicentre was not presented, ESR will be potentially useful for tooth enamel of residents nearby the accident and the high background contaminated area. It must be noted, however, that the high dose-rate effect will appear in the case of direct A-bomb radiation leading to lower dose estimation than real one. Radiation effect from the contamination, which is the case for residents, may be estimated if artificial dose rate is around 100 Gy/h or less. 

The radiation dose of the JCO-Toukai criticality accident was estimated to be 10.8 - 12 Gy by measuring the tooth enamel of the victim.94 The responses of sugar to gamma rays and neutrons were measured in a laboratory but it was not 

2 Radiation Personnel Accident. Radiation exposure in accidents of personnel in nuclear facilities and non-destructive detection have been evaluated with ESR dosimetry. For example, the amputated medium fibre bone of a worker in Peru, who tried to solve the problem by directly touching the source of 60Co unit for a few seconds, was measured four years later.The dose was measured by 6.4 + 0.5 Gy, while 20 + 3 Gy was obtained from fluorescence in situ hybridization method. The result would suggest diagenic decay of the signal due to the metabolism of bone.96 Thus, ESR gives the retrospective dose for radiation accidents. 

3 Emergency In vivo Tooth Dosimeter Oral Dosimeter. Tooth enamel is only material that records the accumulated radiation exposure dose in the past in a human body. An equipment for rapid dosimetry of teeth without their extraction was fabricated upon demand by Chernobyl medical doctors to judge whether immediate medical care such as spinal transplantation is necessary.97 A portable test apparatus of in vivo human tooth dosimeter consists of a resonator cavity with an aperture and a permanent magnet of Nd-B-Fe alloy (Neomax). The sensitivity is not sufficient due to the low Q factor and non-uniform magnetic field at the tooth. 

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