Research
Funded Research
CEMRC receives funding to continue Whole Body Counting
The Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center has received funding of $44,000 from Washington Tru Solutions to continue providing in vivo radiobioassay measurements on workers at the U.S. Department of Energy Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a deep geologic repository that has been disposing of transuranic nuclear waste for the past eight years. In vivo radiobioassay includes measurements of uranium 233,235, 238; thorium, Ra-226, Cf-252; Cm-244; Am-241; Np-237; Pu-238, 239, 240, and 242; Eu-155 and Ce-144, all in the lungs. In the whole body, the following radionuclides are measured: K-40; Eu-152 and 154; Cs-137 and 134; Sb-125; Ru-106 and 103; Co60 and 58; Cr-51; Mn-54; Zn-65; Ce-141; I-131 and 133; Fe-59; Zr-95 and Ba-140 and 133. The measurements take about a half-hour per person. Over the past 10 years, no worker has been found to have had any contamination originating from WIPP.
March 2012