Radiation Dose-rates near Bone Surfaces in Rabbits after an Injection of Plutonium

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Abstract
Rabbits 6 weeks old, given single I.V. injections of 239Pu as Pu(NO3)4 were killed at different times after injection. Undecalcified sections of femurs and vertebrae were prepared, and the dose rates determined by track counting on autoradiographs. In trabecular bone, 24 hours after injection, the ratio of maximum to minimum dose rates to stem cells outside the endosteal surface is about 3: 1. All the trabecular bone surfaces have a deposit of plutonium. At 16 weeks after injection, about one fifth of the trabecular bone surface still has a significant dose rate, and only a few per cent of the surface has no plutonium deposit, even though nearly all the trabecular bone has been formed since injection. Since most of the endosteal bone surface is trabecular bone, a large volume of stem cells and marrow cells is irradiated by these deposits. There is also a significant dose rate due to plutonium in the marrow.

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