Absorbed radiation doses due to chronic ingestion of cesium-137 or strontium-90 by mice

¹ Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire (IRSN), PRP-HOM, SRBE, LRTOX, Laboratoire de radiotoxicologie expérimentale, BP 17, 92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
² Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire (IRSN), PRP-HOM, SDI, LEDI, Laboratoire d’évaluation de la dose interne, BP 17, 92262 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

Received: 14 June 2011
Accepted: 12 December 2011

Abstract

The knowledge of the absorbed radiation dose is essential in order to interpret the results of animal experiments with chronic ingestion of radionuclides by rodents. In order to evaluate this absorbed dose, we applied the dose conversion factors proposed by ICRP publication 108 to mouse chronic ingestion experiments with 20 kBq.L^{-1 137}Cs- or ⁹⁰Sr-contaminated water. The results indicated that whole-body absorbed doses were 9 mGy and 10 mGy by the end of 20 weeks of ¹³⁷Cs or ⁹⁰Sr ingestion, respectively. These results of dose calculations were compared with results obtained with a more refined method using published organ-specific absorbed fractions of energy. There was good agreement between the two methods, indicating that, despite the simple hypotheses used to apply the ICRP 108 dose conversion factors to our mouse model, this method allows one to calculate in a simple and reliable way the absorbed radiation dose received by the rodents during long-term experiments on chronic ingestion of radionuclides.