Abstract. NCRP report No.160 states medical exposures constituted nearly half of the total radiation exposure of the US population from all sources in 2006 [1]. Part of this increase in exposure is due to the rise in nuclear medicine procedures. With this observed growth in medical radionuclide usage there is an increase in the activity being released into wastewater after medical procedures. Often medical radionuclides are not 100% radionuclide pure, but meet a certain standard of purity. Of particular interest are the longer lived impurities associated with these medical radionuclides. The longer lived impurities have a higher chance of reaching the environment. The goal of this study is to identify radionuclide impurities associated with some of the more common radiopharmaceuticals Tc-99m and I-131, locate and quantify the levels of these impurities in municipal wastewater, and make a determination as to the potential long-term impact.
The U.S. Department of Energy is committed to protecting the public and environment against undue risk from radiation associated with radiological activities conducted under its control. Some U.S. Department of Energy Site activities result in emissions of radioactive materials to the air. CAP88 codes are used to model these emissions and the subsequent maximum estimated dose to a member of the public in the vicinity of the U.S. Department of Energy Site. This paper reviews the use of the CAP88 code at the variety of U.S. Department of Energy sites that use it for compliance reporting under Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 61, Subpart H.
The Air Pollutant Graphical Environmental Monitoring System (APGEMS) is used by the Hanford Emergency Operation Center (EOC) to provide refined plume modeling of releases involving radionuclides. The dose conversion factors (DCFs) used by APGEMS to convert air concentration to dose are stored in a file called HUDUFACT.dat; the DCFs are based primarily on ICRP 30 compiled in the late 1980's. This report updates the DCFs using more recent values reported in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPAs) Federal Guidance Report (FGR) 12 and 13. FGR 12 provides external exposure (air submersion) DCFs for radionuclides in air; FGR 13 provides DCFs for radionuclides from inhalation. DCFs were updated for only those radionuclides listed in the original HUDUFACT.dat file. Since FGR 13 provides inhalation dose conversion factors as a function of age, revised DCF files were created for APGEMS for each age group. The "adult" DCF file is the most relevant to compare to the original DCF file being used in APGEMS; these DCF values are compared in this report. v
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.