Selected Presentations
2018 Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting
WSU/College of Pharmacy News – Meier, K.
Dr. Meier summarized news from WSU Spokane’s campus and the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Topics included WSU Spokane’s new chancellor and the College of Pharmacy’s recent name change.
Introducing a new SAC member – Bertelli, L.
Dr. Bertelli introduced himself with a brief summary of the work carried out by Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Internal Dosimetry Group. He discussed operational activities, such as routine monitoring of workers, as well participation on committees and planned research topics for collaboration with the USTUR.
2018 Financial & Administrative Development – Bedell, M.
Ms. Bedell summarized administrative and financial information including: personnel support, the FY2018 budget vs. spending, the FY2019 budget, and salary increases. Additionally, the Anthony C. James scholarship fund reached its goal of $25,000, and is now an endowed scholarship.
2017 SAC Recommendations & 2018 Overview – Tolmachev, S.
Dr. Tolmachev described the USTUR’s response to each of the SAC’s recommendations from last August’s meeting. This was followed by an overview of FY2018 activities, which included: conference presentations, lectures, and seminars; professional services; accepting donations; health physics, NHRTR, and radiochemistry databases; radiochemical analyses; and the upcoming special issue of Health Physics.
Registrant Statistics and IRB Changes – McComish, S.
Ms. McComish briefly summarized Registrant statistics, and explained changes associated with the USTUR’s new IRB of record, the Central DOE IRB. Specifically, Registrants are no longer required to sign renewal paperwork every 5 years, and the USTUR will no longer enroll new Registrants postmortem.
USTUR Health Physics Database – Avtandilashvili, M.
Dr. Avtandilashvili discussed the structure and scope of the USTUR’s in-house health physics database. Information about completed cases, such as route of intake and worksite, were provided. A progress report indicated that 116,380 records from 233 cases had been entered into the database.
National Human Radiobiological Tissue Repository – McComish, S.
Ms. McComish provided the status (maintenance, active, or future) of inventory projects at the NHRTR. Data trends for the number of inventoried samples indicated that laboratory personnel first focused in inventorying USTUR tissues, followed by USTUR acid solutions, acid solutions from Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory population studies, and historical Argonne National Laboratory samples.
2018 Radiochemistry Progress Report – Tabatadze, G.
Dr. Tabatadze describe operation of the radiochemistry laboratory. Topics included tissue analyses, evaluation of analytical methods, equipment upgrades, facility maintenance, equipment repair, and the design of the USTUR’s in-house radiochemistry database.
Development of New Compartmental Model for Plutonium Decorporation – Dumit, S.
Ms. Dumit described a new compartmental model for plutonium decorporation, which she developed using USTUR data. The new model was validated using a autopsy data and an additional USTUR case, and its ability to fit urinary excretion data was compared to fits produced by the previously published CONRAD model.
Internal Dosimetry Software Development (from Pluto to Taurus) – Riddell, A.
Mr. Riddell discussed internal dosimetry software including Pluto, Massass, IMBA, and Public Health England’s new software, Taurus. The base version of Taurus, which implements ICRP’s Occupational Intakes of Radionuclides (OIR) methodology for operational dose assessment purposes, was demonstrated. In the future, an advanced version of Taurus will be developed for use in research.
Research at University of Missouri Research Reactor Center – Brockman, J.
Dr. Brockman discussed several studies that used the results of trace element analyses to conduct epidemiological research. Additionally, his research team has investigated the relationship between the isotopic ratios of uranium and plutonium and self-reported exposures to these elements.
Operation & Research at WSU Nuclear Science Center – Wall, D.
Dr. Wall provided an overview of the broad range of research and operations carried out at WSU’s Nuclear Science Center. Topics included container fabrication and shipping, safety analyses, target production, single crystal x-ray diffraction, the epithermal neutron beam, and the cobalt-60 irradiator.
Research Plan and Operation in FY2019 – Tolmachev, S.
The USTUR’s research and operational goals for the next year were summarized. Topics included: management and operation of the Registries, conducting scientific research, and demonstrating/promoting the broader use of USTUR research, data, and materials.