Use of aspartame-based sweetener tablets in emergency dosimetry using EPR

Possible use of food grade Isomalt material as an EPR dosimeter

The feasibility of using Isomalt “the food grade substance” as electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) material in monitoring the absorbed dose has been studied. Isomalt was prepared in two forms (powder and rods). The sensitivity of Isomalt to gamma rays exceeded by increasing the absorbed dose. The prepared powder can be used in monitoring the absorbed dose in the dose range up to 22 kGy, whereas the rods can be used in the range from 5 to 50 kGy (almost double the allowed powder range). After irradiation two signals were recorded using the EPR technique addressed as S1 and S2 with (g) factor valued by 2.01 ± 0.002 and 1.993 ± 0.002 respectively. This dosimeter offers negligible humidity effect during irradiation, short and long term stabilities were investigated as well. The obtained results may qualify the Isomalt substance to be used as dose monitoring in low and moderate irradiation doses.

Retrospective Imaging and Characterization of Nuclear Material

Modern techniques for detection of covert nuclear material requires some combination of real time measurement and/or sampling of the material. More common is real time measurement of the ionizing emission caused by radioactive decay or through the materials measured in response to external interrogation radiation. One can expose the suspect material with various radiation types, including high energy photons such as x rays or with larger particles such as neutrons and muons, to obtain images or measure nuclear reactions induced in the material. Stand-off detection using imaging modalities similar to those in the medical field can be accomplished, or simple collimated detectors can be used to localize radioactive materials. In all such cases, the common feature is that some or all of the nuclear materials have to be present for the measurement, which makes sense; as one might ask, "How you can measure something that is not there?" The current work and results show how to do exactly that: characterize nuclear materials after they have been removed from an area leaving no chemical trace. This new approach is demonstrated to be fully capable of providing both previous source spatial distribution and emission energy grouping. The technique uses magnetic resonance for organic insulators and/or luminescence techniques on ubiquitous refractory materials similar in theory to the way the nuclear industry carries out worker personnel dosimetry. Spatial information is obtained by acquiring gridded samples for dosimetric measurements, while energy information comes through dose depth profile results that are functions of the incident radiation energies.

Dose response of xylitol and sorbitol for EPR retrospective dosimetry with applications to chewing gum

The purpose of this investigation was to study the radiation-induced electron paramagnetic resonance signal in sweeteners xylitol and sorbitol for use in retrospective dosimetry. For both sweeteners and chewing gum, the signal changed at an interval of 1-84 d after irradiation with minimal changes after 4-8 d. A dependence on storage conditions was noticed and the exposure of the samples to light and humidity was therefore minimised. Both the xylitol and sorbitol signals showed linearity with dose in the measured dose interval, 0-20 Gy. The dose-response measurements for the chewing gum resulted in a decision threshold of 0.38 Gy and a detection limit of 0.78 Gy. A blind test illustrated the possibility of using chewing gums as a retrospective dosemeter with an uncertainty in the dose determination of 0.17 Gy (1 SD).