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5. DOSIMETRY AND ITS APPLICATION
Pages 63-74

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From page 63...
... Owing to the natural processes of weathering and the decay of many elements with short half-lives only five of the radionuclides originally deposited onRongelap as a consequence of the BRAVO test are still present in sufficient quantities to contribute significantly to the estimated dose to individuals who may return to live on Rongelap (Kercher and Robison, 19931. These are: cesium-137, strontium-90, plutonium239, plutonium-240, and americium-241.
From page 64...
... Effective dose is calculated by multiplying the individual tissue equivalent doses by specific tissue weighting factors and summing the weighted tissue doses. Once radionuclides enter a person's body, the person is "committed" to the dose resulting from the radioactive decay of the radionuclides for as long as they remain in the body.
From page 65...
... Measurements of intake or projections based on radionuclide concentrations in the air, water, and soil are used as the basis for calculating radiation dose from ingested radionuclides. For convenience, TCRP has published the results of biokinetic models, for "reference" persons, for radionuclide uptake and retention by the various tissues, factors relating organ burdens to dose rates in various target tissues, and dose coefficients for converting inhalation and ingestion intakes to committed doses in ICRP-30 (ICRP, 1982, 19881.
From page 66...
... 1962~. Appraisal of Current DOE Assessments In estimating doses and potential risks to the people of the Marshall Islands, metabolic and dosimetric models have been used to calculate contributions from external sources and from inhalation and ingestion of radionuclides.
From page 67...
... Those references and other documents by LLNE personnel have reported estimated doses received by Marshall Islands people for many years. Except where otherwise noted, the following discussion addresses the 1993 LLNE dose assessment for Rongelap Island (Robison et al., 19931.
From page 68...
... Airborne radionuclide concentrations were projected for Rongelap from measured concentrations in Rongelap soil and enhancement factors developed in the resuspension experiments conducted on other Marshall Islands atolls. Because the average concentrations of transuranic radionuclides in surface soils over the entire island were observed to be roughly twice those in the vicinity of the village and housing area, location was an important variable in projecting airborne concentration and inhalation intake.
From page 69...
... Ingestion 0.0016 (0.16) Local sources of ingested radionuclides considered in the LLNE assessment include soil (incidental ingestion)
From page 70...
... for Scenario A uses 947 g for the total daily intake of rainwater, well water, and water used to brew coffee or tea and B Thus, the dose from ingestion of transuranics is sensitive to the assumptions about the reconstitute dried drinks (malolo)
From page 71...
... These calculations indicated that, although maximum dose rates occurred when intake began at an earlier age,4 estimated integral effective doses for adults due to intake of cesium-137 and strontium-90 can be used as conservative estimates for intake beginning at earlier ages. In summary, estimates of radionuclide ingestion were based on a substantial database.
From page 72...
... The dietary scenarios developed In Table 3-! can be used to estimate the effects of changing dietary assumptions on dose calculations.
From page 73...
... 2Energy intake of Ujelang local diet increased by increasing intalce of fish (two-fold) , coconut juice (five fold)
From page 74...
... Application of the previously cited absorption factors from the literature would project substantial intake of plutonium from Rongelap soil. Such projections applied to Rongelap, however, would be expected to produce an overestimate, because the plutonium in that soil is of a fired-oxide form that is substantially less soluble than the nitrate forms used in most of the experiments in the literature.


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