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Title: Fabrication of a tissue-equivalent torso phantom for intercalibration of in-vivo transuranic-nuclide counting facilities

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6733218

A tissue-equivalent human-torso phantom has been constructed for calibration of the counting systems used for in-vivo measurement of transuranic nuclides. The phantom contains a human male rib cage, removable model organs, and includes tissue-equivalent chest plates that can be placed over the torso to simulate people with a wide range of statures. The organs included are lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, and tracheo-bronchial lymph nodes. Polyurethane with different concentrations of calcium carbonate was used to simulate the linear photon-attenuation properties of various human tissues--lean muscle, adipose-muscle mixtures, and cartilage. Foamed polyurethane with calcium carbonate simulates lung tissue. Transuranic isotopes can be incorporated uniformly in the phantom's lungs and other polyurethane-based organs by dissolution of the nitrate form in acetone with lanthanum nitrate carrier. Organs have now been labelled with highly pure /sup 238/Pu, /sup 239/Pu, and /sup 241/Am for calibration measurements. This phantom is the first of three that will be used in a U.S. Department of Energy program of intercomparisons involving more than ten laboratories. The results of the intercomparison will allow participating laboratories to prepare sets of transmission curves that can be used to predict the performance of their counting systems for a wide range of subject builds and organ depositions. The intercomparison will also provide valuable information on the relative performance of a variety of detector systems and counting techniques.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
OSTI ID:
6733218
Report Number(s):
UCRL-80343; CONF-780612-6; TRN: 78-015350
Resource Relation:
Conference: Symposium on advances in radiation protection monitoring, Stockholm, Sweden, 26 Jun 1978
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English