上島 久 正,鹿 島正俊,榎 本宏子,松 岡 理:放 射線 医学 総合研 究所 千葉市穴川4丁 目9番1号 〒260 Polymeric Plutonium/Hematopoietic Activity/Bone Marrow The hematopoietic activity in the bone marrow was investigated in male CF#1 mice at 28 and 56 days after intravenous injection of polymeric plutonium-239 at the dose level of 15 ƒÊCi/kg, 10 ƒÊCi/kg and 5 ƒÊCi/kg of body weight. The number of nucleated cells in the femoral marrow dec...

The Savannah River Site (SRS) made significant contributions to NASA space missions via the heat source programs that provide electrical power to satellites traveling outside of earth orbit. Electrical power was supplied by converting heat from the radioactive decay of plutonium-238. The Site produced the Pu-238 in its reactors, separated the plutonium in the canyon facilities, and, for the Mul...

The contamination of Japan after the Fukushima accident has been investigated mainly for volatile fission products, but only sparsely for actinides such as plutonium. Only small releases of actinides were estimated in Fukushima. Plutonium is still omnipresent in the environment from previous atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. We investigated soil and plants sampled at different hot spots in Jap...

India is building a 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, which is scheduled to be operational by 2010. India has refused to accept international safeguards on this facility, raising concerns that the plutonium produced in its uranium blankets might be used to make nuclear weapons. Based on neutronics calculations for a detailed threedimensional model of the reactor, we estimate that up to 14...

The complexation of redox sensitive elements by humic acid (HA), described through the charge neutralisation model (CNM) has been reviewed in order to have a comprehensive scope. The data acquired in HUMICS program on thorium (IV), and data available in the literature, were reinterpreted according to the CNM, and adapted to uranium (IV), neptunium (IV) and plutonium (IV) through analogy in orde...

Gallium present in weapons plutonium must be removed before it can be used for the production of mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear reactor fuel. The main goal of the preliminary studies conducted at Texas A&M University was to assist in the development of a thermal process to remove gallium from a gallium oxide/plutonium oxide matrix. This effort is being conducted in close consultation with the Los Al...

Lung cancer from radon or (239)plutonium exposure has been linked to alpha-particles that damage DNA through large deletions and point mutations. We investigated the involvement of an epigenetic mechanism, gene inactivation by promoter hypermethylation in adenocarcinomas from plutonium-exposed workers at MAYAK, the first Russian nuclear enterprise established to manufacture weapons plutonium. A...

Rapid Extraction of Plutonium from Urine by Pyrosulfate Fusion and PERALS Spectroscopy R.L. Metzger, P.H. Pouquette, and G.W. Klingler Radiation Safety Engineering, Inc. Chandler, AZ Abstract To effectively treat accident victims exposed to airborne isotopes of Plutonium, chelation therapy must be started before the Plutonium is fixed in bone. Urine bioassay samples must be processed rapidly af...

The speciation of plutonium in Arctic waters sampled on the northwest Greenland shelf in August 1997 is discussed in this paper. Specifically, we report the results of analyses carried out on seawater sampled (a) close to the Thule air base where, in 1968, a US military aircraft carrying four nuclear weapons crashed on sea ice, releasing kilogram quantities of plutonium to the snow pack and und...

INTRODUCTION The most difficult radionuclides to measure accurately by external chest counting are the isotopes of plutonium. They are detected through weak emission of low energy L X-rays; in the case of Pu, 11-20 keV L X-rays are emitted with the total emission rate of 0.042 per disintegration. These photons are severely attenuated by overlying tissue; typically about 0.1 % of the photons, th...