Overview of physical dosimetry methods for triage application integrated in the new European network RENEB.

AbstractPurpose: In the EC-funded project RENEB (Realizing the European Network in Biodosimetry), physical methods applied to fortuitous dosimetric materials are used to complement biological dosimetry, to increase dose assessment capacity for large-scale radiation/nuclear accidents. This paper describes the work performed to implement Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) dosimetry techniques.Materials and methods: OSL is applied to electronic components and EPR to touch-screen glass from mobile phones. To implement these new approaches, several blind tests and inter-laboratory comparisons (ILC) were organized for each assay.Results: OSL systems have shown good performances. EPR systems also show good performance in controlled conditions, but ILC have also demonstrated that post-irradiation exposure to sunlight increases the complexity of the EPR signal analysis.Conclusions: Physically-based dosimetry techniques present high capacity, new possibilities for acci...