Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The research program to be supported is in analytical techniques, response tools and countermeasures for radiological emergencies. This program has numerous facets, including research in (a) risk from radiological aerosols, (b) rapid triage and treatment from inhalation of radiological insults, and (c) exposure assessment from accidentally contaminated personnel in nuclear power plants. The research program focus is on protection of the public and workers in the event of a radiological accident or other emergency. It is important to rapidly determine risk after a radiological release to provide possible therapeutic treatments (for example, decorporation therapy), to allay fears, and to ensure that workers are either removed from radiological duty or permitted to resume work. Germane to determination of risk is assessment of radionuclide intake. Although some radioisotopes that are inhaled or ingested are relatively easily determined from bioassay (for example, tritium in urine), others, such as alpha emitting actinides, are not. This research seeks to generate rapid estimates of actinide levels in urine through liquid scintillation counting by exploring three distinct research foci: (1) improvement of alpha/beta discrimination algorithms (through, for example, spectral deconvolution) in liquid scintillation counting to improve minimum detectable activity, (2) design and fabrication of new liquid scintillation vials and photomultipliers to improve the light output/detection efficiency, hence lower the detection limit for alpha emitting radionuclides, and (3) exploration of a novel technique to yield a neutron generating reaction in the LSC vial and use neutrons as a surrogate measurement for actinide alpha emitting reactions, i.e. (a,n). The research will have great significance to the health physics and emergency response community for rapid determination of actinide intake. It will be of equal interest to industrial and government agencies that have requirements to protect the health and security of personnel. The research will benefit the scientific community by adding to the knowledge base of rapid actinide determination from bioassay samples, and by training a number of highly qualified personnel (HQP).