Re: Plutonium and nuclear weapons -Reply

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Wed, 27 Aug 1997, CHARLES BLUE wrote:

> Does anyone know the toxicity of PUO2? 

The doses to various body organs from oral intake and inhalation of each
Pu isotope are given in ICRP-30. Using ICRP weightings for various organs,
these add up to equivalent whole body radiation from Pu239 = 15.7E-9 Sv/Bq
for oral and 9E-5 Sv/Bq for inhalation. According to BEIR V etc, the
cancer risk is about 4E-2 /Sv. For Pu238, the above numbers are 14.8
E-9 Sv/Bq for oral and 8.2E-5 Sv/Bq for inhalation.