APPLICATION OF MULTI-COMPARTMENT WOUND MODELS TO PLUTONIUM-CONTAMINATED WOUNDS INCURRED BY FORMER WORKERS AT ROCKY FLATS

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.