Variability in dose per unit intake to adults, children and infants from ingestion of 239Pu

This paper considers the likely variability between different members of the public in doses from ingestion of 239Pu. There is a review of the evidence on which the biokinetic parameters are based and an outline of the methodology used to calculate overall variability. It is concluded that the 95% confidence interval spans an order of magnitude with the most probable value of dose about a factor two below the upper 95th percentile. The gut uptake factor is the most important single parameter. (author)