title: Thermoluminescence dosimetry of gamma rays from the Hiroshima atomic bomb at distances of 1.27 to 1.46 kilometers from the hypocenter.
abstract: Sixteen ornamental tile samples were collected from 1982 to 1983 from the rooftops of two buildings at Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan. Quartz grains 50-150 microns in size extracted from the samples were analyzed for their thermoluminescence (TL) intensities. Conversion of TL intensity to 60Co gamma exposure resulted in the following estimates: 40.5 to 27.6 mC kg-1 (157 to 107 R) for five samples (one each) collected from five sites at distances of 1.27 to 1.34 km from the hypocenter of the atomic bomb detonated in 1945; 23.7 +/- 1.4 mC kg-1 (92 +/- 5 R) for three samples from one site at a distance of 1.39 km; 21.4 to 17.0 mC kg-1 (83 to 66 R) for three samples (one sample per site) from three sites at distances of 1.40 to 1.43 km; 19.8 +/- 1.3 mC kg-1 (77 +/- 5 R) for four samples from one site at a distance of 1.45 km; and 13.2 mC kg-1 (51 R) for one sample at a distance of 1.46 km. At face value, these estimates are greater by a factor of about 2.5 than previous estimates based on the tentative 1965 radiation dose estimates for atomic bomb survivors (a tentative dosimetry model proposed in 1965), but agree within +32% to -13% (+15% on the average) with recent estimates using modern computational techniques using an improved model of the atomic bomb explosion.
mesh_terms: D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes; D003252:Construction Materials; D005720:Gamma Rays; D007564:Japan; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D013819:Thermoluminescent Dosimetry
chemical_list: D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes