Application of Multi-Compartment Wound Models to Plutonium-Contaminated Wounds Incurred by Former Workers at Rocky Flats

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis of urine bioassay data, spanning four decades, from five workers who had wounds contaminated with plutonium at the Department of Energy Rocky Flats Plant during the period 1961-1967. The cases were selected from participants in the Department of Energy-sponsored Former Radiation Worker Medical Surveillance Program at Rocky Flats, which provided medical monitoring, modern bioassay measurements, and internal dose re-evaluations for former Rocky Flats workers. The cases include a variety of wound types, excision treatment regimes, and monitoring information. These wound cases illustrate the use of two multi-compartment wound models and three plutonium urine excretion models for retrospective calculation of internal plutonium depositions resulting from wounds for which no chelation therapy was administered. Wound model compartment fractions and half times are determined for each case and urine excretion model as are composite parameter values. The urine analysis and wound count measurements obtained under the program provide data with state-of-the art measurement sensitivity, as well as the opportunity to include long-term excretion and wound site data that exceed 10,000 d post-exposure for retrospective intake and dose evaluations. These data are provided to the radiation dosimetry community for use in developing and testing improved models for plutonium deposition in wounds.

Comparison of Local and Systemic DTPA Treatment Efficacy According to Actinide Physicochemical Properties Following Lung or Wound Contamination in the Rat

“…Cases of actinide contamination by inhalation have been reported since the initial use of compounds for either military devices or nuclear fuels (Carbaugh and La Bone, 2003;Okladnikova et al, 2005;Grappin et al, 2007). Similarly, accidental entry of actinides following wounding has also been reported (Ilyin, 2001;Falk et al, 2006;James et al, 2007;Sugarman et al, 2018;Klumpp et al, 2020). Indeed, case reports of incidents/accidents, biological assay data and tissues have been collated by registries in several countries (Loffredo et al, 2017;Kathren and Tolmachev, 2019) that provide a valuable source of information.…”

Performance of detectors used in measurements of radioactive materials deposited in tissues from intakes by wounds

“…After excision, residual wound activity was estimated at 1600 Becquerel (Bq). The last count in 2003, when the operator was 65 years old, the estimated activity was 3220 ± 600 Bq, value significantly higher than the initial activity, evidencing the difference in the quality of the detectors and procedures used [2]. This work aims to evaluate the performance of the detectors in the measurement of injuries with incorporated radioactive material, highlighting its advantages and mainly its limitations.…”