Re: Professional Opinions Wanted

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

1.  Yes

2.  Reportable or not, I'd report it.  (I am fortunate to
be in Illinois which is an agreement state.  They do not
beat us up for consulting with them.)

3.  Beta dose rates from that quantity of Y-90 would be extremely
high.  The latex gloves would not provide much protection.  A spill
like you describe should be handled by leaving the immediate area.
Surveying and if necessary decontaminating oneself.  Getting
assistance to _PLAN_ the clean up, including trying to estimate
potential extremity doses from the plan.

One reference I have lists the unshielded beta dose rate from
P-32 which is slightly lower energy than Y-90, as 14 R per hour
per mCi at 2", and 127 mR at 50 cm per mCi.  If you are really
talking about Curie quantities, then the minimum extremity
exposure rate must have been hundreds of rad/hour.

I'd be pretty upset if such an incident occured.  I would
also have insisted on a written emergency plan for such a protocol.
Then if the plan wasn't followed the people involved would not
have any wriggle room.

Also. no one should be allowed to work with that quantity of beta
emitter without ring badges.  We have seen individuals working
with 200 - 300 mCi of F-18 come up with more than a rad in one
month on a ring badge.  Their technique had them handling the
stuff for only a few minutes per synthesis, and no more than 8-10
synthesese per month.

Dale