The Distance Effect on the Individual Exposures Evaluated from the Soviet Nuclear Bomb Test in 1954 at Totskoye Test Site in 1954

Abstract

The first results of an EPR dose reconstruction with tooth enamel from eyewitnesses of the nuclear test at Totskoye, Southern Urals, Russia, are presented. This test was performed on 14 September 1954, when a nuclear device was detonated at a height of 350 m. The declared power of the explosion was 40 kt. Ten radiation doses have been reconstructed in the framework of the present study. Six of them were found to be higher than 0.4 Gy. The investigations performed have demonstrated a potential ability of EPR retrospective dosimetry to provide additional independent dose estimation for a population exposed as a result of the Totskoye nuclear test. The doses reconstructed for donors who were closer to the site during the nuclear test turned out to be considerably higher (up to factor of 10) than those for the donors who were further from the explosion site. Therefore, a crucially important factor to be borne in mind in collecting samples is the distance between the donor and the explosion site at the time of the explosion.