Posted on Sep 26, 2003

Robert
Fleischer, research professor of geology, has published a paper, “Use Of
Glazes On Porcelain From Near Ground Zero To Measure Hiroshima Neutron Fluence,” 
with J. MacDonald (former student in Geology), S.
Fujita, and M. Hoshi (both at Japanese research institutions) in
the October 2003 issue of Health Physics.
Fleischer and colleagues used the nuclear fission tracks in porcelain – an
abundant material not used before – to determine the radiation dose at ground
zero. Also, Fleischer is co-author of another article, “On Search and Identification of Tracks
Due to Short-Lived Super-heavy Nuclei in Extraterrestrial Crystals,” that
recently appeared in the journal Radiation
Measurements of September 2003.  It describes
the search for the heaviest atomic nuclei in the cosmic radiation and the
finding of atomic nuclei that are appreciably more massive than uranium and
thorium – the heaviest atoms that are commonly found on earth. The work was presented
(by V. P. Perelygin) at the 21st
International Conference on Nuclear Tracks in Solids at New Delhi in October
2002.