Title:

Doses to Members of the Public from I-131 Patient Release

Speaker:

Dr. Nolan Hertel

Affiliation:

GA Tech (NRE/MP)

When:

Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Boggs Building, Room 3-28

Host:

Dr. C-K Chris Wang
chris.wang@me.gatech.edu
404-894-3727

Abstract

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission tasked the Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to perform calculations of doses that may result from exposure to patients who had been administered I-131. The main purpose was to compare the results of dose calculations performed under the simplifying assumptions currently used with those performed without such assumptions, using more realistic irradiation geometries. Tissue attenuation using anthropomorphic phantoms and iodine biokinetics were considered in the patient in an effort to improve external dose estimates compared to the point source/target method. The external dose rate estimates were derived using Monte Carlo methods and the PIMAL phantom previously developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the US-NRC. In addition, an internal pathway dose scenario was developed to estimate doses due to a housekeeper in a hotel due to uptake of I-131 from contaminated surfaces and air.

Biography

Dr. Nolan Hertel is a Professor of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Under a Georgia Tech/Oak Ridge National Laboratory Joint Faculty Appointment agreement, he is currently the Acting Director of the ORNL Center for Radiation Protection Knowledge. He is an expert in radiation protection, shielding and dosimetry. He currently co-chairs the ICRU committee reviewing external operational dose quantities and chairs the Scientific Review Group for the DOE Russian Health Studies Program.