Low Dose Assessment Uncertainty Analysis for Landauer® nanoDot™ OSLDs

Abstract

This study aims to low-level background range measurements of commercial OSLDs. This work is the initial step to put a framework to detect any illicit nuclear activities in any nuclear facility at any time. The idea in this framework is to utilize already placed OSLDs in the facility which are normally read-out periodically. The results of these measurements could be distinguishable from the background radiation since this paper shows how the background dose with its statistical fluctuation provide detection limits in these applications. To do this, we measured dosimeters in two ways; without removal or replacement and full removal for each measurement. As a result of measurements, the initial dose, bleaching constant, and background dose was evaluated for different measurements. ANOVA was applied to all measurements and all measurements considered a measurement data set to analyze results. Consequently, we observed no statistically significant difference in these different kinds of measurement approaches relative to the total propagated uncertainty in any given dose estimate. This shows a passive detection can be verified with iterative measurements to improve statistics without compromising data quality when coupled with dose levels of potential interest serves to advance this potential nonproliferation application.