BACKGROUND Occupational risks, the present nuclear threat, and the potential danger associated with nuclear power have raised concerns regarding the metabolism of plutonium in pregnant women. OBJECTIVE We measured plutonium levels in the milk teeth of children born between 1951 and 1995 to assess the potential risk that plutonium incorporated by pregnant women might pose to the radiosensitive...

The long-term retention of inhaled soluble forms of plutonium raises concerns as to the potential health effects in persons working in nuclear energy or the nuclear weapons program. The distributions of long-term retained inhaled plutonium-nitrate [(239)Pu (NO(3))(4)] deposited in the lungs of an accidentally exposed nuclear worker (Human Case 0269) and in the lungs of experimentally exposed be...

Liver-bile secretion directly influences the content of plutonium in feces. To assess the reliability of plutonium metabolic models and to improve the accuracy of interpreting plutonium fecal data, we developed a compartmental model that simulates the metabolism of plutonium in humans. With this model, we can describe the transport of plutonium contaminants in the systemic organs and tissues of...

The first successful detection of plutonium with a continuous microwave plasma emissions monitor has been demonstrated. Seven plutonium emission peaks in the 362 366 nm and 449 454 nm ranges were clearly observed. The strongest peak was at 453.62 nm. This peak and five of the other plutonium peaks were easily distinguishable from possible interference from iron emission peaks with a spectromete...

A novel XRF sample preparation method was investigated to quantify the concentration of gallium in plutonium metal and minimize the possibility of contaminating the instrument with radioactive material. To prepare homogenous specimens and to add an internal standard, the plutonium must first be dissolved. The currently established method then entails removing the plutonium by chromatography and...

States have handled plutonium. Of those workers, only about fifty, all from the nuclear-weapons complex, have been exposed to plutonium at levels above the maximum permissible dose. Because so few people have high-dose exposures, we have little direct information about the risk of plutonium in man. This leads to the ironic situation that the better we protect our workers, the less we know about...

This paper describes the determination of the speciation of plutonium contamination present on concrete surfaces at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS). At RFETS, the plutonium processing facilities have been contaminated during multiple events over their 50 year operating history. Contamination has resulted from plutonium fire smoke, plutonium fire fighting water, milling and...

Sponsored by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Plutonium – Health Implications for Man, edited by J. W Healy, addresses the concern over the health and environmental hazards of plutonium. It represents a set of articles that covers the influence of plutonium chemistry on its behavior, the exposure pathways, the distribution, metabolism, and transport in the environment. By reviewing the dat...

The behavior of plutonium still puzzles scientists 70 years after its discovery. There are several factors making the chemistry of plutonium interesting including its ability to keep several oxidation states. Another unique property is that the oxidation states +III, +IV, +V and +VI may exist simultaneously in solution. Another property plutonium shares with some other tetravalent metal ions is...