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DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE AIR FORCE LOGISTICS COMMAND FIRST ANNUAL MEETING MAJ. JOHN C TASCHNER
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Time and Place of Meeting 1 REGISTRY BOARD MEMBERS 3 CONSULTANTS TO THE BOARD 4 SUMMARY OF PRESENTATIONS Sample Control and Data Processing 10 Radiocounting Techniques and ITEMS FOR GENERAL DISCUSSION 16
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Time and Place of Meeting: 0830 hours, 27 Oct 66, Room B-98, USAF Hospital (basement), Wright-Patterson AFB. This is within easy walking distance of your quarters. Quarters: Reservations for each attendee have been made at the Visiting Officer's Quarters (Bldgs 825 or 826) on the base. On Base: Available by calling the Motor Pool at 76518. Between the hours of 1700-2200 a shuttle-bus operates every 10 minutes between the billeting office and the Officer's Club, Off-Base: Services of commercial taxi firms are available. Air Transportation--Military: For those arriving from and returning to the Washington DC area, a C-131 operates daily, except Saturday, between Wright-Patterson and Andrews, Show time is one hour prior to departure, and reservations should be confirmed 2-3 days prior to travel. Commercial--Cox Municipal Airport serves Dayton, and flights are operated by United, Delta, TWA, American and Lake Central Airlines, An Air Force bus operates from the billeting office to the airport daily. Schedule: One-way trip takes about 30 minutes.
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Messing Facilities: Breakfast may be taken in the FaicoFs Nest (top floor of Bldg 826). The noon meal on 27 Oct 66 will be available at the Hospital Dining Room. Evening meals may be taken at the Officer's Club. Emergency Telephone Numbers: Daring the conference you may be reached at 513-257-2577. The number of your billeting office is 513-257-6641. During the eveningSj if you need assistance, call LtCol L. T. Odland at 256-3105, or your escort officer.
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PLUTONIUM DEPOSITION REGISTRY BOARD Special-Assistant to The Surgeon General for Medical Research Chairman Col Louis B. Arnoldi, MC, USAF Command Surgeon, Hq AFLC Pacific Northwest Laboratory Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Occupational Medicine Consultant Preventive Medicine Division Commander, USAF Hospital Commander, USAF Radi Health Lab
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CONSULTANTS TO THE BOARD Chief, Special Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Veterans Administration Hospital , Director, Division of Nuclear Medicine Walter Reed Army Institute of Research Waiter Reed Army Medical Center Radiation Safety Officer National Naval Medical Center Office of the Surgeon General Department of Medicine USAF Hospital, Wright-Patterson AFB Ohio Office of the Inspector General Office of the Director of Nuclear Safety Office of the Director of Nuclear Safety
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Division of Operational Safety Defense Atomic Support Agency Chief, Medical Division Monsanto Research Corporation Health Physics Department
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Capt R. Skow, USN Dr. Gordon Dunning, AEC USAF Radi Health Lab Telephone: Office Ext 76672 Chief, Spec Lab of Nuc Med & Biorad VA Hospital, Omaha, Nebr USAF Radi Health Lab Telephone: Office Ext 76672 Maj John C. Taschner Chief, Chemistry Services Br USAF Radi Health Lab Telephone: Office Ext 76672 Capt Ronald G. Conrad Chief, Special Activities Br USAF Radi Health Lab Telephone: Office Ext 76672 Capt George S. Kush Chief, Dosimetry Sec USAF Radi Health Lab Telephone: Office Ext 76672
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PLUTONIUM DEPOSITION REGISTRY BOARD First Annual Meeting 1830-2000 Cocktails at Officer's Club (dress--uniform or 0830 Conference opens Room B-98 Formal presentations will discuss the Palomares Spain Incident and Bio-Assay 0915 Sample Control, Data Processing and Storage at USAF Radi Health Lab -- Lt H. Kaufman 0930 Analytical Chemistry Methods Used in 0950 Radioactive Counting Procedures -- Capt R. Thomas 1030 Comments from Conferees and 1215 Lunch -- USAF Hospital Dining Room 1315 Reconvene -- Continue discussions
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Evening hours Open--Conferees may select whatever diver sionary activities desired. Friday, 28 Oct 1966 If all discussions have been completed on ; 27 Oct 66, conferees are invited to visit the Bus transportation will be provided, departing billeting office at 0830 hours. Return to billets, check out and depart 1 If a heed for further discussions on 28 Oct 66 is agreed to by Board Members, the conference will reconvene in Room B-98 at 0830.
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On 17 Jan 1966 a B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker aircraft collided in flight over or near Spanish territory. The resulting impact permitted the uncontrolled dispersion of four nuclear weapons, three of which fell on Spanish soil and one in the Immediate search operations located the three devices on the ground and verified that the integrity of two was destroyed. High winds permitted dispersal of 239-plutonium over a wide area. Because the whereabouts of the fourth weapon remained a matter for speculation, a large-scale search operation continued on land and sea until 26_Mar 66, when it was removed from the sea. Nearly 2000 American personnel participated in the search, and many Spanish Nationals were also involved. During this period the 239-plutonium constituted an inhalation hazard, even though precautions were taken to prevent gross exposures. Before completion of the task, several tons of topsoil were collected, sealed in barrels, and removed to a national nuclear burial ground in the United States.
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SAMPLE CONTROL SYSTEM The sample control system permitted the laboratory to keep accurate records on all samples received for analysis. In addition, it provided a simple, fast, method of recalling data for report generation and statistical analysis. The com bined resources of the punch-card equipment and the Mathatron desk calculator located in the laboratory, and the IBM 7094 DCS located at Aeronautical Systems Division, gives this laboratory a formidable data-proces sing capability that should be able to meet any requirement placed on it by the Plutonium Deposition
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Initial urine samples from personnel involved in the Palomares search and recovery operation were processed, using a gross alpha screening procedure. The steps in this procedure were: (1) wet ashing of an aliquot of the urine sample with concentrated nitric acid and hydrogen-peroxide to a white ash; (2) solubilizing the white ash and coprecipitation of plutonium with bismuth salts; (3) dissolution with hydrochloric acid followed by the addition of lanthanum carrier before hydrofluoric acid precipitation; (4) direct mounting of the precipitate on a 2" steel planchet; and, (5) counting for 120 minutes in an internal proportional counter. Plutonium spiked pooled urine samples were processed in a like manner to obtain quality control data. Plutonium recoveries of 75. 6 i 19. 6 percent (68% confidence) were obtained. Because of field contamination of initial samples, a resampling program was initiated 2-3'months after the personnel returned to their home base. A procedure which is specific for plutonium was adopted for the resample urines. One-half of the total urine sample was adjusted to pH 2 with concentrated nitric acid. A plutonium330 internal tracer was added to each sample for quality control. The sample was then heated to boiling to break any metabolic complex-binding plutonium. The plutonium was coprecipitated with the alkaline earth phosphates by adjus ting the urine sample to pH 10 with concentrated ammonium-hydroxide. The salts were dissolved in nitric acid and coprecipitated with radiochemically-pure cerium by adjusting to pH 4. 5. This precipitate was dissolved in hydrochloric acid and passed through an anion-exchange column which adsorbs the plutonium. Interfering anions adsorbed on the column were removed by washing with hydrochloric acid. Hydriodic acid was used to elute the plutonium from the ion-exchange column. The plutonium was changed to the sulfate salt by heating the evaporated column residue in sulfuric acid. The solution was adjusted to approxi mately pH 3 and electroplated on a one-half inch steel planchet. A solid state alpha spectrometer was used to measure the plutonium alpha activity presept. Plutonium recoveries of 75.7 ± 16.2 percent (68% confidence) were obtained.
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COUNTING PROCEDURES FOR PuS33 IN URINE I. Counting Procedures Used for Initial Samples; Samples were counted, using Nuclear Measurement Corpora tion PC-3A, windowless, gas-flow proportional counters. Daily checks were made on instrument performance by counting reference standards of Pu-239, to insure constancy of counting efficiency. Samples were counted for 120 minutes and backgrounds were counted daily, normally for 960 minutes. The daily background counts also served as checks on contamination; the counting chambers were decontaminated when background became greater than 0.1 count per ! minute. Normal backgrounds ranged from 0.02-0.06 count per Sample activity was calculated from the following expression: II. Counting Procedures Used for Resamples: The detectors were solid state surface barrier types mounted in a vacuum chamber. Charge sensitive preamplifier s, designed and built by Mr. Robert L. Farr of the laboratory staff, were used to amplify signals from the detector. Output from the preamplifiers was fed to a Nuclear Data 130 AT multichannel analyzer. Readout from the analyzer was in the form of typewriter printout. Using an electroplated source containing known activities of PuS33 and Pu836 , instrument performance was checked each morning before beginning counting, and, normally, an additional time each afternoon. The performance check consisted of observing the peak channels for Pu830 and Pu838 , and adjusting the gain of the amplifier system, if neces sary, to correct for any gain shifts. Additionally, the counting efficiency of the system was checked at the same time, to insure constancy. Background counts were made each night for 800 minutes' duration> with a blank planchet in the counting chamber. The daily background count also served as a check for any possible contamination in the counting chamber. Samples were routinely counted for 100 minutes.
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The data was collected in an analyzer memory of 255 storage positions. Total counts in two bands, centered on the peak channels of Pusa0 and Pu33s, and each containing 11 storage locations, were totaled and used for the sample activity calculations. The same bands were used for both sample and background determinations. Sample activity was calculated from the following expression: (net cpm in Pu band x (2.22) decay to date of count.
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Initial Urine Samples -- Alpha Activity Air Force Army Navy Other Total * Body Burden -- calculated on the basis of t = time in days from exposure to sampling Value of 0.044 pc PuS3S for D represents one body burden or 100% ^ Approximately 80% of this group was resampled, and results will be presented at the meeting.
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Miscellaneous Type Samples 7 no detectable activity 33 range of 0.1 to 633 pCi/liter median value of 1.64 pCi/liter 63 no detectable activity 13 range of 0.1 to 4. 3 pCi median value of 0.6pCi 70 no detectable activity 50 range of 1.0 to 337 dpm 23 samples -- gamma scan peaks at 60, 27, 16, 110, 185 Kev Samples too active for processing
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ITEMS FOR GENERAL DISCUSSION 1. Should continued efforts be made to secure,initial and/or repdjat samples on all personnel who have not been tested dut who were in the area? 2. Does the board recommend resampling of individuals whose initial urine samples showed less than 9% of one At what level of body burden, if any, obtained on resamp ling, does the board recommend continued follow-up? What should be the nature and frequency of such follow-up, 4. Should whole-body counting techniques be developed by the americium as an additional tool in the event of future similar incidents? If affirmative, what type of hardware 5. By using ratios of 239-plutonium to 241-americium in the weapon, soil, and urine, is it possible to determine the 239-Pu content of the lungs using 241-americium values