A Plutonium-Contaminated Wound, 1985, USA
A hand injury occurred at a U.S. facility in 1985 involving a pointed shaft (similar to a meat thermometer) that a worker was using to remove scrap solid plutonium from a plastic bottle. The worker punctured his right index finger on the palm side at the metacarpal-phalangeal joint. The wound was not through-and- through, although it was deep. The puncture wound resulted in deposition of ~48 kBq of alpha activity from the weapons-grade plutonium mixture with a nominal 12 to 1 Pu-alpha to {sup 241}Am-alpha ratio. This case clearly showed that DTPA was very effective for decorporation of plutonium and americium. The case is a model for management of wounds contaminated with transuranics: (1) a team approach for dealing with all of the issues surrounding the incident, including the psychological, (2) early surgical intervention for foreign-body removal, (3) wound irrigation with DTPA solution, and (4) early and prolonged DTPA administration based upon bioassay and in vivo dosimetry.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-06OR23100
- OSTI ID:
- 1060543
- Report Number(s):
- 13-NSEM-0079
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics News, Journal Name: Health Physics News
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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