41Ca – a possible neutron specific biomarker in tooth enamel

Autor: Georg Rugel, Anton Wallner, Werner Rühm, N Nakamura, Thomas Faestermann, Gunther Korschinek, A Arazi, K. Knie, H.J. Maier
Rok vydání: 2004
Předmět:
Zdroj: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. :759-764
ISSN: 0168-583X
DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2004.04.141
Popis: The measurement of long-lived radionuclides, produced by neutrons originating from the atomic-bomb explosions, offers the possibility to reconstruct neutron fluences to which survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were exposed. The long-lived radionuclide, 41 Ca ( T 1/2 =103 000 years), is suggested here as a means for a retrospective determination of thermal neutron fluences, directly within the human body of a survivor. As proper material tooth enamel is proposed. The 41 Ca signal in tooth enamel may be correlated with the exposure to A-bomb induced thermal neutron fluences, provided the natural background level of 41 Ca/Ca is significantly lower. Therefore, tooth samples of unexposed survivors of the A-bomb explosions have been examined by means of accelerator mass spectrometry, in order to quantify the natural background level of 41 Ca/Ca. Measured 41 Ca/Ca ratios were confirmed to be as low as about 2 × 10 −15 . Thus, the A-bomb induced additional signal should be detectable for survivors at epidemiological relevant distances. Since tooth enamel had already been used as a dosemeter for gamma radiation from the A-bomb explosion, the detection of 41 Ca in tooth enamel would allow, for the first time, an assessment of both, γ-ray and neutron exposures in the same biological material.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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