[en] The assessment of the internal radiation dose delivered by radionuclides incorporated in the human body after accidental release into the environment requires the use of suitable biokinetic models. These models describe the absorption of radionuclides into the blood circulation, their distribution and retention in various organs and tissues, and the excretion routes. Biokinetic models are also employed for interpreting bioassay measurements in exposed subjects, like activity concentration measurements in body fluids (e.g. urine, blood), in order to estimate the incorporated amount of radioactive substances. The reliability of a biokinetic model is closely linked to the available experimental data used to develop the model itself. Biokinetic data for human subjects are available for most essential elements, as well as for some important non-essential elements such as caesium, lead, radium, uranium, americium and plutonium. For many other radionuclides, either very little or no information is available from human studies, and the respective models must be derived from other sources. These may include results from studies in animals, comparative data on the behaviour of similar radionuclides or chemical analogues in vitro. Biokinetic models developed from such a variety of data sources can be applied to humans only with a limited degree of confidence. The availability of data directly obtained on human subjects is therefore fundamental to set up more reliable and realistic models. Ruthenium and zirconium are among the elements characterised by a serious lack of reliable data in humans