Re: Uranyl Acetate

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@beta.tricity.wsu.edu>]

Paul -- Sent a brief reply to Ira Schneider, which I hope will be of help 
to him, along with an offer of help from the U.S. Transuranium and 
Uranium Registries.  The USTUR will provide assistance to him or others 
with respect to actinide exposures; we are always interested (here's the 
commercial) in not only providing assistance to others, but in 
recruitment of volunteer donors with documented exposures to the 
actinides into our program.

Ron Kathren

On Tue, 19 Jul 1994 FRAMEP@orau.gov wrote:

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> 
> 
> 
> On July 19 Ira Schneider wrote:
> 
> >Today, an electron microscopist discovered that uranyl acetate
> >contains depleted uranium even though it is labeled as rad
> >limited quantity.  Of course we had no idea he has been
> >working with it since 1965 not bothering to wear gloves or
> >working in a hood.  He now wants to know the classic
> >question of was he exposed to radiation?
> 
> >I am interested in finding out how other institutions regulate this
> >substance with respect to personnel monitoring.  How would one go
> >about reconstructing  a dose?  Any good literature out there that I
> >could get my hands on.  Any comments would be appreciated.
> 
> The researcher is in an awkward spot. He's trying to stain very small
> grids by floating them on drops of uranyl acetate and has gone to a
> great deal of trouble to get this far. If he drops the grid during
> handling he could very well lose the sample - wearing gloves
> greatly increases the chance of this happening. If the drop
> of uranyl acetate drys out during the staining, his sample
> is probably compromised - operating in a fume hood, while possible,
> makes this more likely. Overall, the uranyl acetate hazard pales when
> compared to that from the volatile fixatives and plastics he's using.
> Also, he probably gets a greater exposure from whatever x-rays the
> electron microscope emits. In the old days at Brookhaven, health
> physics used to do weekly(?) smear surveys but no personnel
> monitoring.  A urine sample might be analyzed to demonstrate that his
> uranium levels are in the baseline range.
> 
>       Good luck!
> 
>           Paul Frame
>           Oak Ridge Assoc. Univ.
>