Comparison of two leg phantoms containing 241AM in bone

Three facilities (CIEMAT, HMGU and HML) have used their in vivo counters to compare two leg phantoms. One was commercially produced with Am activity artificially added to the bone inserts. The other, the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries' (USTUR) leg phantom, was manufactured from Am-contaminated bones resulting from an intake. The comparison of the two types of leg phantoms showed that the two phantoms are not similar in their activity distributions. An error in a bone activity estimate could be quite large if the commercial leg phantom is used to estimate what is contained in the USTUR leg phantom and, consequently, a real person. As the latter phantom was created as a result of a real contamination, it is deemed to be the more representative of what would actually happen if a person were internally contaminated with Am. Copyright © 2011 Health Physics Society