The thermally stimulated luminescence and IR absorption spectra of MgO:Mn2+ crystals irradiated in different reactors have been studied. It has been shown that dependence of TSL peaks (450 and 550 K) and optical absorption bands (3290, 3720 and 1600 cm-1) on neutron fluence correlate. The trend of these changes in the same fluence range (1014-1017 n/cm2) depends both on the initial state of the crystal and on the irradiation source, which may be explained by the “small dose effect”.