Re: Wound dosimetry question

[JSBland@AOL.COM]

Question is whether you are doing dosimetry from a regulatory compliance  

standpoint or from a real health issue concern.  A lot of  research has been done 

on "hot particle dosimetry" and would think that this  could apply for alphas 

in direct contact with sensitive tissue.  Also, the  situation seems to be 

similar to the lung dose from an inhaled  particle.  Dose is averaged over the 

mass of the lung.  The  current ICRP guidance includes a weighting factor for 

tissue (not in  the US NRC's Part 20 application of earlier ICRP guidance), so 

a dose  equivalent could be assigned.  But, need to consider the area  

exposed.  One approach we took in evaluating situations of localized skin  exposure 

was to multiply the calculated dose equivalent (to the small  area) by the 

ratio of the area to the total skin area.  Look at NUREG-1717  for the skin dose 

from tritium watches. Not necessarily correct, but an  approach. 

J. Stewart Bland, CHP

Chesapeake nuclear Services, Inc.

Annapolis, MD

410-266-9174 

_jsbland@chesnuc.com_ (mailto:jsbland@chesnuc.com)