f

is the fraction of plutonium transferred from one location to

another within the body where the subscripts refer to the compart-

ments and the pathways listed in Figure 3 and Table 2 except BBN
is the fraction from blood to bone,
TBF
&

is the residence time of material following pathways f and g
in the tracheobronchial region (days).

Values of most of the parameters in the above equations are given in

Table 2 (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1976).

Trpegts assumed to be

one hour of 1/24-day (Snyder, 1967; Kotrappa, 1968; 1969) while f is

usually 0.003 percent (ICRP 2,,1959; ICRP 19, 1972). The parameter values
for bone are £ BRN = 0.45 and TR = 100 years (ICRP 19, 1972). The radiological decay rate for 239Pu is 7.786 x 1078 (days)7}.
The radiation dose rate to any of the compartments shown in Figure 3 or any
other organ of the body is given by

dD/dt = E y/m

(19)

where

D is the dose to the compartment (rems),
E = 51.2159 ce, is a dose rate factor (g rem)/yCi day)),
¢ is the effective energy absorbed in the compartment per

disintegration of radionuclide (MeV/dis),

y is the plutonium burden in the compartment (uCi),
m is the mass of the compartment (g).
Only the dose rate to lungs (pulmonary region)
The usual values of the parameters in Equation
partments are e€, = 53, e€, = 270, and
= 7000
(ICRP 2, 1959) and mM =
00 as given by Snyder

(1968; 1969).

and bone is of interest.
(19) for these two comas given by the ICRP
(1967) and Kotrappa

The biological half-time values (T?) in Table 2 range from less than one
day to 1,000 days which corresponds to a minimum 4 value of about 6.9 x
10-" (days)~!.
These X values are much larger than the radiological

decay rate for *39Pu (A,

= 7.786 x 1078 days7!) which can be neglected

by comparison in Equations (1) through (17).

The A,

value for bone is

small enough that Ay will have a very slight effect on Equation (18).

Another consequence of the half-time values listed in Table 2 is the

time it takes the compartments to reach the equilibrium burden of 239Pu

resulting from a constant inhalation or ingestion rate.
The time to
reach about 99 percent of the equilibrium burden is about seven times

the biological half-time. For the compartments of the lung model, the
maximum half-time is 1,000 days (LMi) and the equilibrium time is no

longer than about 7,000 days (about 19 years).
Figure 4 shows the 233py
organ burdens predicted previously (Martin and Bloom, 1976; 1977) and it

can be seen that the pulmonary region (lung in Figure 4) and compartment

522

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