Determination of 32P in urine for early estimation of the neutron exposure level for three victims of the JCO criticality accident.
In the criticality accident which occurred on 30 September 1999 at a uranium conversion facility in Tokai-mura, Japan, three workers were severely exposed to neutron and gamma-ray irradiation. Preliminary estimations of doses from blood properties and 24Na concentration in blood were 16-20, 6-10 and 1-4 gamma-ray gray-equivalent (gammaGyEq) respectively for the three workers. For apparent dose estimation, neutron-induced radionuclides in biological materials such as blood, hair and urine were measured. Accordingly, we detected 32p in urine samples. The concentration ratios of 32P in the urine for the three workers showed a similar tendency to those of 24Na in blood. This result indicated that the radioactivity of 32P in urine could be used to estimate the neutron exposure level.
Nishimura
Yoshikazu
Y
National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba-shi, Japan. y_nishim@nirs.go.jp
Takeda
Hiroshi
H
Miyamoto
Kiriko
K
Watanabe
Yoshito
Y
Kouno
Fuyuki
F
Kuroda
Noriko
N
Kim
Hee Sun
HS
Yukawa
Masae
M
D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D009502:Neutrons / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010761:Phosphorus Radioisotopes / Q000652:urine*; D011210:Power Plants; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D013997:Time Factors
D010761:Phosphorus Radioisotopes