Feasibility of determining Pu-239 environmental and occupational levels in urinary excretion by fission track analysis

The results of bioassay programs for detecting human exposure to plutonium are currently playing a role that they were never intended or prepared to fulfill. With little resistance or support from the scientific community, the regulatory community established exposure limits for plutonium burdens based largely on imprecise inference of causes and effects; thus, to an extent, incomplete data and analysis formed the basis for most existing bioassay programs. At the time these early programs were developed, they were used only to determine the occupational exposure to radiation workers and populations unintentionally exposed to occupational levels during open air testing. The results from these programs are now used in litigation to determine cause, negligence and responsibility for health problems associated with the populations surrounding facilities that store, handle and process nuclear materials. As this role is beyond the scope of most bioassay programs` designs, concern for the use of existing bioassay programs in this manner is rising. It is imperative that defendable, scientifically-based, more sensitive techniques be researched and developed to measure the presence of Plutonium (Pu), which in turn can be used to establish and predict the health effects of a minimal Pu exposure. Currently, estimates to predict systemic deposition using urinalysis data are several times greater than the exposure levels measured by autopsy. The scientific research conducted in this study can serve to narrow this discrepancy and provide the regulatory community with a more reliable basis for establishing regulatory exposure limits and accurately predicting systemic deposition. Furthermore, this research and the continued development of more sophisticated detection techniques can serve to dispel general public concern over the possibility of radiation exposure from ongoing site remediation and closure efforts