Estimation of External Contamination and Exposure Rates Due to Fission Product Release

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Health Phys
• Personal Author:
  Dewji, S.A. ; Bales, K. ; Asano, E. ; Veinot, K. ; Eckerman, K. ; Hart, S. ; Finklea, L. ; Ansari, A.
• Description:
  In the event of a radiological incident, the release of fission products into the surrounding environment and the ensuing external contamination present a challenge for triage assessment by emergency response personnel. Reference exposure rate and skin dose rate calibration data for emergency response personnel are currently lacking for cases where receptors are externally contaminated with fission products. Simulations were conducted to compute reference exposure rate coefficients and skin dose rate coefficients from photon-emitting fission products of radiological concern. To accomplish this task, simplified mathematical skin phantoms were created using surface area and height specifications from International Commission on Radiological Protection Publication 89. Simulations were conducted using Monte Carlo radiation transport code using newborn, 1-y-old, 5-y-old, 10-y-old, 15-y-old, and adult phantoms for 22 photon-emitting radionuclides. Exposure rate coefficient data were employed in a case study simulating the radionuclide inventory for a 17 × 17 Westinghouse pressurized water reactor, following three burn-up cycles at 14,600 MWd per metric ton of uranium. The decay times following the final cycle represent the relative activity fractions over a period of 0.5-30 d. The resulting data can be used as calibration standards for triage efforts in emergency response protocols.
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Adult Article Calibration Child Child, Preschool Emergency Planning Exposure Female Fission Products Humans Infant Infant, Newborn Kinetics Male Models, Statistical Monte Carlo Method Phantoms, Imaging Photons Radiation Radiation Dosage Radiation Exposure Radiation Protection Radioactive Hazard Release Risk Assessment Skin Skin Dose

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• Source:
  Health Phys. 119(2):163-175
• Pubmed ID:
  31913861
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9703347
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  119
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7dc3ecc12eaccf1545bdd410d88d5761576900e7d7a2d6e9f8ba8c47c28b77da
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/122653/cdc_122653_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 554.40 KB ]