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Depleted uranium (DU) intake rates and subsequent dose rates were estimated for personnel entering armored combat vehicles perforated with DU penetrators (level II and level III personnel) using data generated during the Capstone Depleted Uranium (DU) Aerosol Study. Inhalation intake rates and associated dose rates were estimated from cascade impactors worn by sample recovery personnel and from cascade impactors that served as area monitors. Ingestion intake rates and associated dose rates were estimated from cotton gloves worn by sample recovery personnel and from wipe test samples from the interior of vehicles perforated with large caliber DU munitions. The mean DU inhalation intake rate for level II personnel ranged from 0.447 mg h-1 based on breathing zone monitor data (in and around a perforated vehicle) to 14.5 mg h-1 based on area monitor data (in a perforated vehicle). The mean DU ingestion intake rate for level II ranged from 4.8 mg h-1 to 38.9 mg h-1 based on the wipe test data including surface to glove transfer factors derived from the Capstone data. Based on glove contamination data, the mean DU ingestion intake rates for level II and level III personnel were 10.6 mg h-1 was and 1.78 mg h-1, respectively.more » Effective dose rates and peak kidney uranium concentration rates were calculated based on the intake rates. The peak kidney uranium concentration rate cannot be multiplied by the total exposure duration when multiple intakes occur because uranium will clear from the kidney between the exposures.« less

As a part of routine plant operations, limited quantities of radioactive materials are released to the environment in liquid and airborne effluents. An effluent control program is implemented to en...

Commercial nuclear facilities accumulate radiological and environmental controls program data and documents pursuant to company policy, regulatory, license, and technical specifications requirement...

As a result of the March 28, 1979, accident at Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2), significant quantities of fission gases and volatile radionuclides, primarily radioiodine, were released into the en...

Investigations were made to determine the roles that cold and X- irradiation played upon the biological half time of Cesium-137 in rats. Partial and whole-body X-irradiation increased the biological half-time of Cesium-137 while cold with the associated increased food consumption and fluid exchange decreased the biological half-time. Analysis of fecal and urine outputs showed that increased diuresis does not invariably facilitate Cesium-137 excretion. The possible roles of food ingestion and fecal outputs were discussed.