Re: Comment on "Short essay on plutonium"

[Gary Masters <gmasters@csn.net>]

Before alot is said in reference to the short essay, please bear in
mind that it was written for laymen, not Health Physicists. The primary
purpose was to provide an individual with a sense for how outrageous
the "One pound of Pu could kill everyone on earth" claim is.

No one should use the short essay on Pu as a basis for internal dosimetry.

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 * Gary Masters, ALARA Program Coordinator, RFETS   gmasters@csn.net *
 *         Get Totally Warped - Use a Mac as a Unix terminal!        *
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On Fri, 20 Oct 1995 TOOHEYR@ORAU.GOV wrote:

> The essay states:
> 
>      Since plutonium is an alpha particle emitter the Annual Limit on 
>      Intake is based on critical organ dose rather than on whole body
> dose. 
> 
> This is misleading; the ALI is based on dose to bone surface because the
> tissue weighting factor is less than 0.1 (actually 0.03); thus one could
> exceed 0.5 Sv to the organ without exceeding 50 mSv EDE; being an
> alpha emitter has nothing to do with it.  Same thing goes for iodines,
> because thyroid weighting factor is also 0.03. 
> 
> Hate to nitpick, but it comes with the infernal dosimetry business.
> 
> Dick Toohey
> Radiation Internal Dose Information Center
> TooheyR@ORAU.GOV
> 
>