title: Chest wall thickness measurements for enriched uranium: an alternative approach.
abstract: The Human Monitoring Laboratory has developed a technique to determine the chest wall thickness of an individual using information from the spectrum produced by internally deposited radionuclides. The technique has been investigated both theoretically and practically using phoswich detectors and the Lawrence Livermore Torso Phantom. The phantom was used with lung sets containing homogeneously distributed 93% enriched uranium, 20% enriched uranium, natural uranium, and 241Am. It was found that a 3-cm chest wall thickness can be estimated to within 9% when measuring 93% enriched uranium. The technique does not work for the latter two radionuclides because of an insufficient separation in the photon energies and poor resolution of the phoswich detectors. The technique is only of value for activity levels well above the detection limit.
authors.affiliation: Human Monitoring Laboratory, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puscalau
mesh_terms: D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008961:Models, Structural; D013909:Thorax / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014501:Uranium
chemical_list: D014501:Uranium