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DISTRIBUTION AND EXCRETION OF PLUTONIUM ( INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, CHAPTER 8, PP 256 - 263 )

NICKSON, J J; RUSSEL, E R

HREX

Location - DOE/NNSA NUCLEAR TESTING ARCHIVE Address - P.O. Box 98521 City - Las Vegas State - NV Zip - 89193-8521 Phone - (702)794-5106 Fax - (702)862-4240 Email - NTA@NV.DOE.GOV

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Never classified

0007

NV0714517

1995 Feb 17

2012 May 14

THIS PAPER PUBLISHED IN 1951 DESCRIBES, METABOLIC DATA OBTAINED FROM A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS INVOLVING ADMINISTERING TRACER AMOUNTS OF PLUTONIUM TO FOUR DIFFERENT ANIMALS SPECIES AND TO FIVE HUMANS, THE PURPOSE OF THESE EXPERIMENTS WAS TO ESTABLISH DEPOSITION SITES FOR PLUTONIUM IN THE BODY AND TO DETERMINE THE RATE OF PLUTONIUM ELIMINATION IN EXCRETA AS A FUNCTION TIME POST INTAKE. IT WAS NOTED FROM THE ANIMAL STUDIES THAT THE PLUTONIUM URINARY EXCRETION RATES AVERAGED 0.01 PERCENT IN RABBITS. SUBSEQUENT EXPERIMENTS WITH MICE, RATES, AND DOGS SHOWED THE EXCRETION RATES MAY VARY BY A FACTOR OF FIVE AMONG THE DIFFERENT ANIMALS. THE HUMAN URINARY EXCRETION RATES ERE FOUNT TO AVERAGE 0.01 PERCENT PER DAY AFTER THE FIRST TWO WEEKS. THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLUTONIUM IN VARIOUS ORGANS AND TISSUES WERE DETERMINED FOR ANIMALS AND TWO FOR THE HUMANS WHO WERE IDENTIFIED TO BE AILING FROM INCURABLE ILLNESSES. DATA OBTAINED FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS SHOWED THAT THE BONE MARROW AND SEVERAL ORGANS, INCLUDING THE LIVER, SPLEEN, AND LYMPH NODES, ARE THE PRINCIPAL SITES OF PLUTONIUM DEPOSITION. THE HUMAN DATA WERE USED TO ESTABLISH THE CRITERIA FOR MONITORING WORKERS FOR PLUTONIUM UPTAKE BY EXCRETA ANALYSIS FOR PLUTONIUM. THE PAPER ALSO DESCRIBES RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE CHICAGO METALLURGICAL LABORATORY ROUTINE PLUTONIUM URINE BIOASSAY PROGRAM.