Beryllium oxide is predominantly used as personal dosimeter for medical purposes. In the context of a B.Sc. thesis, we investigated the potential of a BeO-based OSL dosimeter for in-situ γ-dose rate estimation together with colleagues from the TU Dresden (working group of PD Dr. Henniger). The aim is to monitor radiation field inhomogeneities.
We buried 30 dosimeters in homogeneous loess deposits of the Remagen-Schwalbenberg site and excavated them over defined periods of totally 12 weeks. First results indicated good accordance of BeO and γ-scintillation. A burial period of two weeks appeared to be sufficient to reproduce stable signals. Furthermore, we tested different burial depth from 15–80 cm. While a depth of 15 cm was regarded insufficient, a depth of at least 40 cm appears to be suitable, but this needs further investigation. Likewise, the study has to be extended on sediments with lower radionuclide concentrations.