Thermoluminescence measurements of ceramic samples from accidentally polluted territory of southern urals

Abstract

During 1949–1956, the plutonium production facility Mayak released large quantities of radioactive waste into the Techa river. As a result, a contamination of the river system occurred, and the population of the riverside villages was exposed to external and internal irradiation. Currently, the problem of dose assessment must be solved to make correct risk estimations using the information on long-term epidemiological observations from the URCRM database. TL measurements are an important part of this work. The method of TL dating of ancient pottery and geological objects originally developed in the late 1960s was modified for retrospective dosimetry using environmental materials such as bricks, from procedures developed at Moscow State University. Special investigations were carried out for correct dose estimations in quartz extracted from different layers of brick samples. A number of brick samples were collected from a few buildings that remained in the village of Metlino which was situated 7 km below the point of release and was demolished in 1956. The accrued doses in quartz extracted from the outer centimeter of the bricks ranged from 0.76 to 5.28 Gy. The highest doses were measured in the samples from a wall of the mill located near the river bank.