RE: Contaminated uranium in the news again

["Bauman, Rodney L. (84U) " <84u@BECHTELJACOBS.ORG>]

Because the specific activity of uranium varies with enrichment and because

body burden is dependent upon the material's lung solubility

characteristics, the additional burden of the transuranics is very dependent

upon these site/material-specific factors.  For example, a simple comparison

of the DAC values for Pu and U gives the following:



For UF6 and other "soluble" uranium compounds at a natural enrichment, ~ 4

ppb of Pu-239 provides an additional 10% dose.



However, for UO3 and other Class-W uranium compounds enriched to 20% wt

U-235, 4 ppb Pu-239 represents only an additional 0.36% dose.



The effect of the transuranic constituents is directly proportional to the

uranium material's "solubility" and inversely proportional to the it's level

of enrichment. 



Rodney Bauman, CHP, RRPT

Bechtel Jacobs Company, LLC

Project Health Physicist

ETTP and Y-12 Waste Operations

Y-12 Plant Bldg. 9624, MS 8222

Voice: 865.241.5344

Pager: 865.417.0561

Fax: 865.576.3946

84u@bechteljacobs.org



> -----Original Message-----

> From:	Bernard L Cohen [SMTP:blc+@PITT.EDU]

> Sent:	Wednesday, June 27, 2001 11:52 AM

> To:	Raymond A. Hoover

> Cc:	laradcon@HOTMAIL.COM; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

> Subject:	Re: Contaminated uranium in the news again

> 

> 

> On Wed, 27 Jun 2001, Raymond A. Hoover wrote:

> 

> > I just finished a review of some of the papers referenced in the

> document.  

> > The levels of contamination were on the order of ppb for Pu and Np, and 

> 

> 	--Roughly, the doses from a given mass of Pu and U is inversely

> proportional to their half lives, 4,500,000,000 / 25,000, or 180,000. Thus

> 1 part per billion of Pu would increase the dose by only 0.02%. This is

> truly negligible.

> 

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