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New Website Contact

Dr. William Morgan and Lezlie Couch are operating this Low Dose Radiation Research Website sinceTony Brook's retirement in April. If you have any questions or concerns about the Website, or have publications we have missed, please contact Lezlie Couch lcouch@tricity.wsu.edu.

Low Dose Program Investigators' Workshop

January 21-23, 2008

The DOE Low Dose Program Investigators's Workshop was held in Washington D.C. Attendance at this Workshop was required for every project Primary Investigator, and encouraged for one or two others of the research teams. As always, each participant was asked to prepare a poster presenting their latest research accomplishments.

The Workshops are intended to provide an opportunity for the Program investigators to discuss successes, problems, and challenges of their research.

The Low Dose Radiation Research
Program 2007 Update
(Click here to see more)

New Calls for Proposals Delayed

Calls for new proposals for the Low Dose Radiation Research Program have been delayed due to the government budget currently being on a continuing resolution. We antipate the new call to come out within a few months.

Information on 210 Po-a toxic
alpha emitter

Polonium-210 is a high specific activity alpha emitting radionuclide. 210Po is a daughter product of decay of the uranium-series so that it is present in small amounts in the environment. Thus, it is normally present in small amounts in the body and makes up part of our natural background radiation exposure. It has recently come of public interest since Mr. Alexander Litvinenko apparently ingested a lethal dose of the material that resulted in his death in about 22 days.

210Polonium is a daughter product of Radon decay. Because Po has a short physical half-life (138 days), it has a very high specific activity (4,500 Ci/g), making it very radioactive per unit of mass. The data suggest that between 3 and 10% of the ingested 210Po is taken up in the body and is rather uniformly distributed throughout the soft tissues. It remains in the blood for a relatively long period of time. When it decays it produces a high energy 5.3 MeV alpha particle, similar to that of plutonium. This makes it very effective per unit of activity as well as per unit of dose in producing biological damage when internally deposited. Thus, it requires only a very small mass (about 10 mg) of 210Po to be ingested to result in a high lethal radiation dose.

In animal studies it was determined that 70 mCi/Kg body weight resulted in acute lethality in dogs, cats and rabbits. These animals died within about 30 days from an “acute” radiation syndrome that was very similar to that seen in humans following whole body radiation exposure to high doses of low LET radiation. It has been suggested that micro gram quantities were ingested by Mr. Litvinenko that resulted in his death.

Additional research is needed to determine effective ways to remove 210Po from the body to limit the dose and decrease the risk from ingested or inhaled materials.

Chief Scientist Chosen for
Low Dose Program

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) has released a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for Ground-Based Studies in Radiation Biology, NNJ06ZSA001N, entitled "Ground-Based Studies in Radiation Biology." This NRA solicits ground-based proposals for the Space Radiation Program Element of the Human Research Program in the area of Space Radiation Biology utilizing beams of high energy heavy ions simulating space radiation at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL), at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York.

Visit the website: http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/

Radiation Countermeasures Center of Research Excellence (RadCCORE)
Request for Pilot Project Proposals

High-Throughput Minimally-Invasive Radiation Biodosimetry
Request for Pilot Project Proposals

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