Absorbed dose rate coefficients for 134Cs and 137Cs with steady-state distribution in the human body: S-coefficients revisited

Mats Isaksson, Martin Tondel, Robert Wålinder, Christopher Rääf

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In the event of an accidental release of radioactive elements from a nuclear power plant, it has been shown that the radionuclides contributing the most to long-term exposure are 134Cs and 137Cs. In the case of nuclear power plant fallout, with subsequent intake of radionuclides through the food chain, the internal absorbed dose to target tissues from protracted intake of radionuclides needs to be estimated. Internal contamination from food consumption is not caused by a single intake event; hence, the committed equivalent dose, calculated by a dose coefficient or dose per content function, cannot be easily used to calculate the cumulative absorbed dose to relevant target tissues in the body. In this study, we calculated updated absorbed dose rate coefficients for 134Cs and 137Cs based on data from the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) on specific absorbed fractions. The absorbed dose rate coefficients are provided for male and female adult reference phantoms, respectively, assuming a steady-state distribution of Cs that we calculated from the ICRP biokinetic model for Cs. With these coefficients, the absorbed dose to the listed target tissues, separately and to the total body, are related to the number of nuclear transitions (time-integrated activity) in each listed source region. Our new absorbed dose rate coefficients are given for the complete set of target tissues and have not been presented before. They are also provided for aggregated categories of organs to facilitate epidemiological studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1213
JournalJournal of Radiological Protection
Volume41
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021 Dec

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Radiology and Medical Imaging

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