Radium-226 body burden in U miners by measurement of Rn in exhaled breath
Uranium miners were made to inhale Rn-free medical O2 and exhale through a 5.2-1 A1 chamber before reporting to work. The chamber was sealed and isolated from the sampling circuit. An electrostatic plate collected the freshly formed Rn-decay products. The subsequent programmed alpha counting of the plate yielded a Rn concentration in the exhaled breath. Assuming that the exhaled breath represents a certain fraction of the Rn produced inside the body, the body burden of 226Ra was calculated. Standardisation of this procedure and the data collected on 310 miners are discussed. The procedure is simple and applicable for routine measurements. The miner needs to be in the laboratory for only 10 min. The system is also portable for field application. For routine use, the minimum detectable concentration is 3.87 Bq X m-3 which corresponds to a body burden of 0.26 kBq in a typical miner, if one assumes the Rn release fraction from the body as 84%. The system offers a more convenient and sensitive alternative to whole-body counting of workers for 226Ra.
- Research Organization:
- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India
- OSTI ID:
- 5737584
- Journal Information:
- Health Phys.; (United States), Vol. 2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
MINERS
PERSONNEL MONITORING
RADIUM 226
BODY BURDEN
ALPHA DETECTION
BREATH
EXHALATION
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADON
URANIUM MINES
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
CLEARANCE
DETECTION
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXCRETION
FLUIDS
GASES
HEAVY NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MINES
MONITORING
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
PERSONNEL
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM ISOTOPES
RARE GASES
SAFETY
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
560161* - Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology- Man
054000 - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety