Operation and Maintenance of the National Radiobiology Archives
The National Radiobiology Archives (NRA) are an archival program, started in 1989, to collect, organize and maintain data, laboratory notebooks, and animal tissue specimens from government (Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies) sponsored radiobiology life-span animal studies. These unique records, histopathology slides and paraffin embedded tissue blocks are maintained in a central facility and are available for further research study. The materials include electronic and paper records for each of more than 6,000 life-span-observations on dogs as well as details of major studies involving nearly 30,000 mice. Although these studies were performed over many years and at different laboratories with differing data management systems, the NRA has translated them into a standardized set of relational database tables. These can be distributed to interested individuals on written request. Specific Aims are: (1) To Maintain the Archive of Written Records from the Animal Experiments - The USTUR continued to maintain the NRA archives which consist of approximately 175 storage boxes containing laboratory notebooks, animal exposure records, animal pathologic records, and radiographs. These were stored in a 6,000 square foot leased facility in Richland, WA. Additionally, through a collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) Low Dose Program, many of these records were scanned into digital files. These totaled 34 GB of data, which are saved in 2,407 separate PDF files that are organized by box number and animal identification number. (2) To Maintain the Archive of Animal Tissues at Washington State University - The USTUR continued to house the NRA dog tissue collection in the leased facility. The NRA tissue collection consisted of pathology slides and tissue blocks. Approximately 25% of the laboratory facility was dedicated to the storage of the NRA materials. (3) To Organize the Datasets of These Animals in the Context of Other Datasets so That They Can be Used by the Scientific Community at Large - As was reported in the FY2009 NRA progress report, Dr. Chuck Watson (NRA Database Consultant) completed his service as the US representative on the European Radiobiological Archives (ERA) Advisory Board during FY2009. Unfortunately, due to the lack of financial support during FY2010, the NRA was not able to make further contributions to the ERA's efforts.
- Research Organization:
- Washington State University, USTUR, Richland, WA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-04ER63802
- OSTI ID:
- 1035877
- Report Number(s):
- USTUR-0329-12; TRN: US201206%%358
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Challenges in Long-Term Records Preservation and Access - 19549
United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries. Annual Report, October 1, 1993--September 30, 1994