Limiting occupational exposure due to plutonium inhalation intake

«Radiation and Risk», 2015, vol. 24, No. 3, pp.51-58

Authors

Vasilenko E.K. – Head of Dep. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia. Contacts: 19 Ozersk road, Ozersk, Chelyabinsk region, Russia, 456780. Tel.: +7(35130) 7-02-93; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Sokolnikov M.E. – Head of Lab., MD. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia.
Vostrotin V.V. – Head of Lab., C. Sc., Biol. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia.
Ephimov A.V. – Head of Lab. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia. Aladova E.E. – Senior Researcher, C. Sc., Biol. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia.
Romanov S.A. – Director, C. Sc., Biol. Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, FMBA, Ozersk, Russia.

Abstract

The article presents analysis of weaknesses of limits on occupational exposure to plutonium. Features of doses formation in prime organs of plutonium deposition due to chronic inhalation of the radionuclide as oxide and nitrate salt are considered. Calculated annual excess risk from inhalation of plutonium-containing substances shows that valid safety standards do not ensure proper level of radiation protection of nuclear industry workers. The limit of committed effective dose received during 50-years, accepted in Russian Radiation Safety Standards (RSS-99/2009) as the standard, cannot be used as the basic value for calculation of annual excess risk, because it does not take into account true levels of internal exposure due to specific mechanism of plutonium metabolism. The article suggests approaches to limiting occupational exposure of workers and setting limits on plutonium intake in dependence of the annual equivalent, accumulated doses in prime organs of the radionuclide deposition.

Key words
Acceptable excess lifetime risk, limit of committed effective dose, permissible dose limits, prime organs of deposition, limit of annual intake, radiation safety standards, metabolism of plutonium, solubility, annual excess risk, rated indexes, biokinetic model.

References

1. Radiation safety standards (RSS-99/2009). Sanitary-epidemiological rules and standards. Moscow, Federal Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, 2009. 100 p. (In Russian).

2. Sokolnikov M.E., Vostrotin V.V., Ephimov A.V., Vasilenko E.K., Romanov S.A. Lifetime risk of mortality from lung cancer as measure of reliability of radiation safety standards at alpha-irradiation exposure due to plutonium-239 inhalation. Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety (in press). (In Russian).

3. Khokhryakov V.V., Khokhryakov V.F., Suslova K.G., Vostrotin V.V., Vvedensky V.E., Sokolova A.B., Krahenbuhl M.P., Birchall A., Miller S.C., Schadilov A.E., Ephimov A.V. Mayak Worker Dosimetry System 2008 (MWDS-2008): assessment of internal dose from measurement results of plutonium activity in urine. Health Physics, vol. 104, no. 4, pp. 366-378.

Full-text article (in Russian)