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In December, the USTUR mailed its 2025 Registrant newsletter to living Registrants and deceased Registrants’ next of kin. This year’s newsletter included two guest articles from the scientific director of the Million Person Study, Lawrence Dauer. The first article introduced the MPS and the second discussed an observed association between Parkinson’s disease and radiation dose. The newsletter also included the USTUR director’s annual “Direct from the Director” letter, information about a proposal to create a Radiological and Nuclear Security Leadership Academy at WSU, an update on the USTUR’s follow-up urine collection program, a … » More …

One unique donation to the USTUR is that of a former nuclear worker who inhaled curium. His curium intake was minor in comparison to a much larger plutonium intake; however, relatively little direct human data about curium in humans is available. Curium is a minor actinide that has mostly been studied in animal models, or in terms of excretion of curium in urine after an intake. To our knowledge this is the first time that the curium biokinetic model has been combined with direct measurements of curium in human tissues.

This Registrant received an acute inhalation of curium-244 when a glove box failed. The … » More …

USTUR research provides vital insights into the behavior of actinides in the human body, and USTUR faculty have been a consistent part of the conversation at both national and international radiation protection conferences. USTUR Director, Sergey Tolmachev, chaired a session on radionuclide decorporation agents and chelation therapy at the 2025 Radiation Research Society meeting and delivered a talk on a USTUR study involving a worker exposed to curium-244. This study is the most extensive work on the biokinetics and distribution of curium-244 in the human body. This is an example of the unique value that USTUR research has for the body of knowledge about … » More …

Xirui Liu gave an invited talk highlighting the USTUR history and research at the Occupational Internal Dosimetry Training and Meeting hosted by Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA). This in-person training course for radiation protection professionals was focused on internal radiation dosimetry principles, tools, and regulatory applications.

Presentation slides
Training and Meeting Website

The USTUR’s 2025 Annual Report has been completed and is available for download. The document summarizes organization, activities, and scientific accomplishments at the USTUR from April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 (fiscal year 2025). Research summaries include: impact of death certificate cause-of-death misclassification, vacuum drying to improve tissue sample preparation, and a curium-244 case study.

Download Report

The USTUR’s Assistant Director, George Tabatadze, was recently elected to the Health Physics Society (HPS) Board of Directors. He will take office at the 70th Annual Meeting of the HPS in July 2025 for a three-year term. Dr. Tabatadze is a long-time HPS member who has served on the International Collaboration, Science Support, and Academic Education Committees, as well as in the Columbia Chapter of the HPS, where he is a past president and continues to play an active role in its leadership. He is committed to advocating for sound radiation safety … » More …

USTUR faculty recently participated in the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) Annual Meeting, where they authored three presentations that highlighted the USTUR’s role in supporting epidemiological studies by helping to improve the reliability of both dose assessment and disease outcome data. This year’s NCRP meeting focused on the work that is being conducted by the Department of Energy’s Million Person Study (MPS). The million person study is investigating a range … » More …

George Tabatadze and Maia Avtandilashvili recently had the honor of being invited as ICRP experts to teach an internal dosimetry course for the UAE Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) in Abu Dhabi, October 14-18. The week-long course was organized jointly by FANR, ICRP, and the European Radiation Dosimetry Group (EURADOS). It included lectures that covered key concepts, such as intake routes and biokinetic models, as well as afternoon sessions dedicated to hands-on exercises that allowed participants to apply the concepts learned during the lectures. It … » More …