Initial tl/osl/epr considerations for commercial diatomaceous earth in retrospective dosimetry and dating

Robert B. Hayes, Ryan P. O'Mara, David A. Hooper

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Diatomaceous earth is found in various locations around the planet. It is caused by the deposited exoskeleton material formed by the death of large concentrated populations of diatoms. The exoskeleton is effectively pure silicate and as such becomes a prospective material for retrospective dosimetry and dating. This work investigated the thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence properties of commercially obtained diatomaceous earth. The material was not found to have useful dosimetric properties with conventional TL methodologies but did provide large dose estimates using the Single Aliquot Regeneration technique on some subset samples. These findings for organic silicate did suggest some mechanisms explaining the sensitization process in geological silicate materials utilized in dosimetry and dating. Electron paramagnetic resonance was identified as a potential future method for evaluating this material as it revealed unique signal components not found in igneous or commercially produced silicates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)310-319
Number of pages10
JournalRadiation Protection Dosimetry
Volume185
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 31 2019

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under Award number DE-NA0002576. This work partially paid for by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grant NRC-HQ-84-14-G-0059. Additional support of this work was through a joint faculty appointment between North Carolina State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in coordination with the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D of the National Nuclear Security Administration sponsored Consortium for Nonproliferation Enabling Capabilities (CNEC). This work was performed in part at the Analytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF) at North Carolina State University, which is supported by the State of North Carolina and the National Science Foundation (Award number ECCS-1542015). The AIF is a member of the North Carolina Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN), a site in the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).

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