Posted on Jan 11, 2002

Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, is lead author (with S. Fujita and M. Hoshi) of a paper, “Hiroshima Neutron Fluence on a Glass Button From Near Ground Zero” in a recent issue of Health Physics, the radiation safety journal. Fleschier and his colleagues measured uranium fission tracks in a piece of silicate glass that was at ground zero during the Aug. 6, 1945 atomic detonation to determine levels of radiation exposure. Fleischer has solicited pieces of glass for dosimetry research, but most were either too distant from the explosion or altered by the heat of the blast. Also, Fleischer is author (with Robert Doremus of Rensselaer) of another paper in Health Physics, “Uncertainties in Retrospective Radon Exposure of Glass: Possible Effects of Hydration and of Leaching.” The paper considers the present techniques for using an embedded radioactive isotope 210Pb in glass to measure exposure to radon and its prompt decay products. Fleischer and Doremus point out that effects of water are probably sources of error, but subject to future checking to avoid glass compositions that are unreliable.