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.