Intake Assessment for Workers Who Have Inhaled super(238)Pu Aerosols

Biokinetic data from published animal studies have indicated that there are significant differences in the radiation dose patterns resulting from the inhalation of super(238)Pu oxide rather than super(239)Pu oxide aerosols. Although less frequent than for super(239)Pu, several exposures to super(238...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Guilmette, R A, Griffith, W C, Hickman, A W
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Biokinetic data from published animal studies have indicated that there are significant differences in the radiation dose patterns resulting from the inhalation of super(238)Pu oxide rather than super(239)Pu oxide aerosols. Although less frequent than for super(239)Pu, several exposures to super(238)Pu have been documented in the USA. A super(238)Pu biokinetic and dosimetry model developed by Mewhinney and Diel, which was based on the results of animal studies, was applied to urinary bioassay data from workers who inhaled super(238)Pu aerosols at three different super(238)Pu processing facilities. Although all the exposures were purportedly to ' super(238)Pu ceramic' or super(238)Pu oxide particles, the temporal features of the observed urinary excretion patterns differed among the cases from the various facilities. For exposures that occurred at Facility 1, urinary excretion patterns mimicked those observed in the ITRI super(238)Pu dog studies, i.e. the super(238)Pu in urine began at its lowest levels immediately after exposure, then increased gradually by a factor of 100 over the next 200 days; from 200 to about 4000 days, the excretion levels remained relatively constant, followed then by a very slow decline for the remaining 2000 days of follow-up.
ISSN:0144-8420