[en] A correction is needed to calculate the concentration of airborne tritium oxide when dried silica gel is used as the collector. This tracer study with tritiated water shows that the concentration of tritium in the water desorbed from silica gel is lower than in the adsorbed water by a fraction that increases with the amount of adsorbed water. The hypothesis was tested that the tritium in adsorbed tritiated water is diluted by isotopic exchange with non-tritiated water and hydroxyl groups in the silica gel collector. The extent of dilution was measured from 4 percent to 14 percent adsorbed water, which is typical of moisture on field collectors for monitoring airborne tritium oxide. For this entire range of percent adsorbed water, the inferred percent exchangeable water in the silica gel under study was 6.3 +/- 0.1 percent. This value compares to the silica gel weight loss of 5.3 percent by heating to 1,050 degrees C. An explanation of the difference is proposed. The contribution of the HTO/H2O vapor pressure isotope effect was considered in calculating isotopic exchange. A curve is presented for correcting the measured tritium concentration in the distillate from the silica gel as a function of the amount of adsorbed water. The tritium tracer procedure is recommended for determining the percent exchangeable water in other silica gels to correct tritium measurements of water vapor collected by them

[en] Dust loading on air sample filters is known to cause a loss of efficiency for direct counting of alpha activity on the filters, but the amount of dust loading and the correction factor needed to account for attenuated alpha particles is difficult to assess. In this paper, correction factors are developed by statistical analysis of a large database of air sample results for a uranium and plutonium processing facility at the Savannah River Site. As is typically the case, dust-loading data is not directly available, but sample volume is found to be a reasonable proxy measure; the amount of dust loading is inferred by a combination of the derived correction factors and a Monte Carlo model. The technique compares the distribution of activity ratios [beta/(beta + alpha)] by volume and applies a range of correction factors on the raw alpha count rate. The best-fit results with this method are compared with MCNP modeling of activity uniformly deposited in the dust and analytical laboratory results of digested filters. Finally, a linear fit is proposed to evenly-deposited alpha activity collected on filters with dust loading over a range of about 2 mg cm^-2 to 1,000 mg cm^-2.

[en] Clinical trials of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy for patients with malignant brain tumor had been carried out for half a decade, using an epithermal neutron beam at the Brookhaven Medical Reactor. The decision to permanently close this reactor in 2000 cut short the efforts to implement a new conceptual design to optimize this beam in preparation for use with possible new protocols. Details of the conceptual design to produce a higher intensity, more forward-directed neutron beam with less contamination from gamma rays, fast and thermal neutrons are presented here for their potential applicability to other reactor facilities. Monte Carlo calculations were used to predict the flux and absorbed dose produced by the proposed design. The results were benchmarked by the dose rate and flux measurements taken at the facility then in use.

[en] 'A foodstuff survey was performed around the Savannah River Site, Aiken SC. It included a census of buildings and fields within 5 km of the boundary and determination of the locations and amounts of crops grown within 80 km of SRS center. Recent information for this region was collected on the amounts of meat, poultry, milk, and eggs produced, of deer hunted, and of sports fish caught. The locations and areas devoted to growing each crop were determined in two ways: by the usual process of assuming uniform crop distribution in each county on the basis of agricultural statistics reported by state agencies, and by analysis of two LANDSAT TM images obtained in May and September. For use with environmental radionuclide transfer and radiation dose calculation codes, locations within 80 km were defined for 64 sections by 16 sectors centered on the Site and by 16-km distance intervals from 16 km to 80 km. Most locally-raised foodstuff was distributed regionally and not retained locally for consumption. For four food crops, the amounts per section based on county agricultural statistics prorated by area were compared with the amounts per section based on satellite image analysis. The median ratios of the former to the latter were 0.6 - 0.7, suggesting that the two approaches are comparable but that satellite image analysis gave consistently higher amounts. Use of satellite image analysis is recommended on the basis of these findings to obtain site-specific, as compared to area-averaged, information on crop locations in conjunction with radionuclide pathway modelling. Some improvements in technique are suggested for satellite image application to characterize additional crops.'

[en] Stochastic effects have been defined as those for which the probability increases with dose, without a threshold. Nonstochastic effects are those for which incidence and severity depends on dose, but for which there is a threshold dose. These definitions suggest that the two types of effects are not related. In this paper it will be shown that at least some of the nonstochastic effects are the consequence of accumulated stochastic effects and that both types of effect can be related to a common cellular damage. It is proposed that, at the cellular level, effects such as mutation induction and cell reproductive death are related to DNA double-strand breaks caused by radiation. Further, we propose that stochastic effects depend on a mutational event induced in a critical cell of a target organ. Nonstochastic effects are considered to arise because the function of a substantial proportion of critical cells is impaired. In some cases the predominant effect is comparable to cell reproductive death. Animal mortality, for instance, may occur because a substantial proportion of bone marrow cells is killed. Using this concept, mathematical formulas can be derived for the various effects. Modification of the irradiation conditions (e.g., low dose rate or density ionizing radiation) leads to changes in the initial molecular lesions and, consequently, to changes in the dose effect relationships of stochastic and nonstochastic effects. Experimental support will be discussed, using animal mortality as an endpoint. The implications of this approach will be discussed with emphasis on its application to radiological protection

[en] Reevaluation of neutron exposures to atomic bomb survivors has greatly reduced the significance of that data base for estimating the relative biological effectiveness of radiations with high linear energy transfer (LET). Consequently, greater emphasis is being given to animal data and mechanistic studies at the cellular and molecular level in assessing the role of radiation quality in the health effects of low-level radiation exposure. We are investigating the spatial patterns of energy deposited in DNA by ionizing radiation and their influence on cell killing and mutation induction. Our basic hypothesis is that high ionization density increases the probability that radiation-induced DNA damage will be unrepairable or misrepaired. This paper discusses the use of computer simulation to investigate damage induced in DNA by the decay of incorporated 125I

[en] The metabolic behavior of ²³⁹Pu and ²⁴¹Am present in three industrial dusts has been studied after their inhalation by the rat. A comparative experiment has also been carried out with a mixture of these actinides, inhaled as their nitrates. The aim of this work was to provide an experimental basis for assessing limits on intake and to establish whether the ²³⁹Pu content in the lungs could be interpolated from measurements of ²⁴¹Am. The results (1) demonstrate the wide differences in the lung retention kinetics of the actinides and in the absolute and relative amounts which translocate to the blood that can occur for industrially produced materials; (2) show that the annual limits on intake (ALI) for the different materials vary between those postulated for class W and Y compounds by the International Commission on Radiological Protection; (3) indicate that, depending on the nature of the dust, acute intakes of ²³⁹Pu equivalent to the ALI can be estimated from ²⁴¹Am chest-monitoring data at times from a few days up to about 3 y after exposure

[en] Values of an inaccessible biological parameter in man may be predicted from values measured in animals by correlating with a parameter accessible in both species, such as body weight, energy production, excretion rate, etc. Predicting toxic effects, from environmental chemicals, of therapeutic doses for drug administration and of radiation absorbed dose from medical and environmental radioactivity depends on the rationalization of relationships between concentration and time when scaling to humans from animal data. For example, the retention of ^99mTc, injected intravenously as pertechnetate, reaches 10% in the mouse at about 1 d, but this level occurs in humans at about 7 d. Making a simultaneous transformation between two species for the concentration and time variables by using a method of least-squares fitting, we have derived a series of transformation factors for several species. When correlated with a biological parameter such as body weight, these factors can be used to yield predicted values that are in good agreement with measured values. This system may be used with any related variables, making it useful for predicting other types of biological data

[en] In this paper, recent developments in the quantitative assessment of carcinogenic risks based on toxicological and epidemiological data are reviewed. In particular, model-free approaches to low-dose risk assessment which involve only the assumption of low-dose linearity are considered. Measures of carcinogenic potency which avoid the need to extrapolate to low doses are also described. The allometric bases for converting risk estimates between species are then discussed. Pharmacokinetic models for determining the dose delivered to the target tissue are examined, and the implications of using such models in extrapolating between doses, of exposure, and species are examined. The application of these concepts in chemical and radiation carcinogenesis is illustrated by means of brief case studies of methylene chloride and Rn. Biologically motivated cancer models based on the initiation-promotion-progression theory of carcinogenesis are discussed and compared with the classical multistage model. The estimation of risks with time-dependent exposure patterns is considered, and conditions under which the use of a time-weighted average dose is appropriate are identified. Finally, the estimation of carcinogenic risks posed by exposure to complex mixtures is explored. 92 references

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