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The USTUR was well-represented at the 16th International Radiation Protection Association’s (IRPA) International Congress in Orlando, Florida. Six members of the USTUR research team attended the meeting, where they had the opportunity to present recent research and network with radiation safety professionals from around the world. Presentations included two platform presentations, four posters, and one personal enrichment program (PEP) seminar. USTUR faculty were also coauthors on an additional two platform and two poster presentations.

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Drs. Strom and Tabatadze co-taught a Professional Enrichment Program (PEP) course at the Health Physics Society Annual Meeting/IRPA16 in Orlando, Florida on July 19, 2024. The course, titled “Radiochemical Measurements of Actinides in Biological Samples: Guide for Research Laboratories for a MARLAP-Based Approach to Uncertainty and Quality Management,” encompassed the methodology of implementing a MARLAP framework into a research laboratory operation to ensure quality and accuracy in radiochemical measurements, focusing on uncertainty propagation and data management.

Dr. George Tabatadze recently attended the International Conference on Radiation Applications (RAP.24) in Granada, Spain, where he presented his latest research, “From mapping to quantification: digital autoradiography of 226Ra in human skeleton.” The conference, held in the beautiful city of Granada, was a tremendous success, featuring insightful discussions and engaging presentations. Dr. Tabatadze’s presentation was received with great enthusiasm by his peers. His research, conducted under the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries (USTUR), focused on expanding the capabilities of the ionizing radiation quantum imaging detector (iQID) to quantify the activity concentrations of 226Ra in bone … » More …

In December, the USTUR mailed its 2023 Registrant newsletter to living Registrants and deceased Registrants’ next of kin. This year’s newsletter included a note from the USTUR’s director, as well as information about the USTUR’s special session at the Health Physics Society’s winter workshop on internal dosimetry; resumption of in-person advisory committee meetings and active inventory of historical NHRTR samples; and background information about the radium studies that were carried out by Argonne National Laboratory and other institutions.

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The USTUR’s 2023 Annual Report has been completed and is available for download. The document summarizes organization, activities, and scientific accomplishments at the USTUR from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023 (fiscal year 2023). Research summaries include: bias in plutonium systemic and lung activity predictions, use of USTUR data to develop site-specific biokinetic models for dose reconstruction at the Rocky Flats Plant, modeling chelation for a female nuclear worker, and misclassification of underlying causes of death.

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George Tabatadze visited the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT) in Madrid, Spain on June 21, 2023. CIEMAT staff provided him with a tour of multiple laboratories, including their whole body counting facility, ICP-MS lab, bioassay lab, and neutron dosimetry lab. While there, he had many good discussions with CIEMAT staff including conversations about USTUR materials and research.

PHOTO: George Tabatadze with Begoña Pérez López and Juan Francisco Navarro (left) and Maria Antonia Lopez (right) at the CIEMAT whole body counting facility

Sergei Tolmachev, George Tabatadze, and Maia Avtandilashvili attended the annual European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) meeting in Porto, Portugal from June 12-15. This year’s annual meeting included a EURADOS school on the “contribution of dosimetry in the field of nuclear emergency preparedness and radiological accident management” as well as meetings of the EURADOS working groups (WG). USTUR faculty participated in the WG7 task group on internal dosimetry, and Maia Avtandilashvili provided an example of a plutonium contaminated wound case for the EURADOS/Radiation Emergency Medical Preparedness and Assistance Network (REMPAN) wound contamination project.

Presentation slides

The USTUR has completed its data quality objectives (DQO) document, which addresses the sample collection and data analysis needs in support of the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries’ (USTUR) mission. The DQO process was originally developed by federal agencies to ensure that data of acceptable completeness and sufficient quality would be available to inform decisions about environmental cleanup. The USTUR generally does not make decisions based on its radiochemical measurement data, but rather uses the data it generates to quantitatively describe the biokinetics of uranium and transuranium elements in the human body. In this document, the USTUR presents … » More …