Radiation quality of tritium: a comparison with 60Co gamma rays

In a previous study, microdosimetric simulations were performed for tritium uniformly distributed in a medium, and for tritium bound to biologically critical sites of dimensions from 10 nm to 2 µm. Results of local energy density, i.e. energy deposition in microscopic regions, are different for these two cases. Based on the spatial distribution of energy deposition, dose mean lineal energies are calculated for tritium in the forms of tritiated water (HTO) and organically bound tritium (OBT). The dose mean lineal energies of OBT are about a factor of 1.7 higher than those of HTO in a wide range of target dimensions of biological interest. The results are consistent with radiobiological findings that OBT is about twice as effective as HTO. In this study, the same calculations were performed for (60)Co gamma rays in a wide range of target dimensions of biological interest (10 nm to 2 µm). Compared with (60)Co gamma rays, the estimated relative biological effectiveness could vary from 1.3 to 3.5 for HTO, and 2.3 to 5.6 for OBT. The results are consistent with radiobiological findings for various biological endpoints in different biological systems that OBT is about twice as effective as HTO.