Re: Plutonium bioassay

["Elizabeth M. Brackett" <brackett@bright.net>]

You didn't give an e-mail address for the person who was interested in
this, so I'm assuming you wanted the response posted to Radsafe.

The optimum method will depend on a number of items, including funding,
isotope of interest, required turnaround time, and how much you're willing
to inconvience the potentially exposed individuals.  Current methods for
assessing Pu intakes include urine sampling, fecal sampling, and lung
counting.  Lung counting is detecting relatively large intakes of very
insoluble Pu, so it's probably not the method you're looking for.  Fecal
sampling can detect smaller intakes than urine sampling but it's more
difficult to perform a dose asessment because there is much more
variability and uncertainty associated with the samples.  Urine sampling is
most frequently used, at least at the DOE facilities.  There are a number
of techniques for performing the assessments; the optimum depends on the
items noted above.  The sensitive techniques are, as one would expect, the
most expensive.  Mass spec is very sensitive but is typically used for
Pu-239 because U-238 interferes with the measurement of Pu-238.  It is also
quite expensive.  I think alpha spec is most often used, but detection
capability, in terms of dose, is somewhat limited if you don't sample
within a few days of intake.

Liz Brackett


At 10:55 AM 9/9/1999 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello Radsafers;
>
>This question is being posted for a person not on this list, and the
subject is
>outside my own area of knowledge.
>
>Can anyone recommend the optimum bioassay method for evaluating potential
doses
>of plutonium via inhalation?
>
> It could be assumed that the exposure would have occurred within the last
twelve
>months and may may be either acute or chronic, but relatively low level.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Paul R. Steinmeyer
>Helath Physicist
>Radiation Safety Associates, Inc.
>mailto:prstein@radpro.com
>

******************************
  Elizabeth M. Brackett, CHP 
     Sr. Health Physicist     
     MJW Corporation, Inc.       
       (330) 644-3757        
  mailto:brackett@bright.net 
******************************
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