Estimation of 'dose-depth' profile in the surface layers of a quartz-containing tile from the former Hiroshima University building indicates the possible presence of beta-irradiation from residual radioactivity after A-bombing.

Abstract

The problem of differentiating between primary irradiation and exposure due to residual radioactivity following A-bombing (including beta-exposure), is the subject of special attention and discussions in order to understand the health effects following the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombings, especially among newcomers to cities soon after the detonations. In this work, the method of single quartz grain luminescence retrospective dosimetry was applied for a retrospective estimation of the ‘dose-depth’ profile in a quartz-containing tile extracted from the building of former Hiroshima University (HU), which was a ‘witness’ of the Hiroshima atomic bombing on the 6 August 1945. It has been shown that results of retrospective estimates of the ‘dose-depth’ profile using the method of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) from inclusions of quartz grains in very thin layers of the sample, in combination with the calculations of the ‘dose-depth’ profile using the Monte Carlo method, indicates the possible presence of beta irradiation of thin layers of the sample located near the surface of the tile facing the air, where there is no electronic equilibrium from gamma radiation.