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Re: RE: Patient Excreta



At Fermi 2, employees who receive nuclear medicine uptakes must report this.
 
One of the reasons for this requirement is that releases in their excreta
may 
be detected in our environmental samples.  For example, the "reporting
level" 
for I-131 in a water sample is 2 pCi/l (2 E-6 uCi/ml).  An employee who has 
recently been released after a therapeutic I-131 treatment is likely to 
excrete approximately 10 mCi during his day on site.  Using the reference
man 
data, a man excretes 1400 ml of urine per day (A woman excretes 1000 ml/day
- 
draw your own conclusions!), so the concentration would be 1 E4 uCi/1.4 E3
ml 
= 7 uCi/ml in the urine - higher for a woman.  Assuming a dilution factor of
1 
E4 (approximately 100 in the sewaage system and 100 in the environment), the 
expected concentration in the sample would be 7 E-4 uC/ml, which is 
approximately 300 times the reporting level!  If this concentration were due 
to plant operation, it would indicate a significant deterioration of plant 
conditions, so, when this turns up, it's important that we know why. 
 
The opinions expressed are strictly mine. 
It's not about dose, it's about trust. 
 
Bill Lipton 
liptonw@dteenergy.com 
 
 
You wrote: 
 
>When in Graduate School, one my colleague's research was to  
>study the release and effect of radioactive material into the sewer  
>system in Dade County Florida (Greater Miami area), which  
>included around 10 large medical facilities. The results were that  
>there was very little dilution, with the release staying in a bolus (not  
>as expected), the facility could be identified by the "fingerprint" and  
>time of arrival at the sampling station. The dose from the release, if  
>I remember correctly (and this was quite some time ago) was not  
>insignificant. It was quite measurable. 
 
>Sandy Perle 
>E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net  
>Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205 

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