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Washington State University
06/25/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/25/2026 07:16
WSU lab’s work makes nuclear industry safer
The U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries is a little-known research program in the Washington State University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, but it has an outsized role in scientists' understanding of how radioactive elements affect the human body.
USTUR's findings are used to validate radiation safety standards for people who work with plutonium and uranium, to study the biological effects of radiation on tissues, and to improve mathematical models that are used to calculate radiation doses.
One of its most important tools is the National Human Radiobiology Tissue Repository, an archive of tissue, organs, and bones from 371 people who were exposed to radioactive elements during their working lives and who volunteered to donate their organs or their bodies to the USTUR after their deaths.
The unique materials held by the USTUR are helping scientists worldwide better understand how plutonium is absorbed and dispersed through the body to improve radiation dose assessment. The USTUR and its predecessor organizations have been funded by U.S. Department of Energy since 1968.
"The way plutonium behaves in humans is very different than in animals," said Sergey Tolmachev, director of the USTUR and professor at WSU. "One human is better than 1,000 mice" when it comes to predicting how a substance is absorbed and distributed within the body, he added.
The USTUR marks its 60th anniversary in 2028. To celebrate the milestone, its scientists are planning to organize a special session on the history and research of the program at the 72nd annual meeting of the Health Physics Society in Tacoma in July, 2027.
Most USTUR tissue donors were exposed through work to weapons-grade plutonium or uranium at Department of Energy sites like Hanford in Washington, Los Alamos in New Mexico, and Rocky Flats in Colorado.
When a donor dies, and has pledged their whole body to the USTUR, the body is shipped to the USTUR facility in Richland for autopsy. A local forensic pathologist dissects it with the help of USTUR personnel and WSU College of Nursing students. Donors who pledged their organs are autopsied closer to their homes, with guidance from USTUR.
Tissue, organ and bone samples are processed and analyzed in the radiochemistry laboratory at the USTUR facility. Samples might be frozen, dried, preserved in formaldehyde, or embedded in plastic. Each sample is barcoded but not personally identified.
Active recruitment for the Registries has ended, Tolmachev said. Today, radiation protection standards are more rigorous and workplace monitoring is more effective than in the past, so the level of exposure of current nuclear workers is significantly lower than in the early nuclear age. Still, there are 13 future donors who have pledged to take part in the program. Of the 371 donors in the Registries, only 12 are women.
The impact of USTUR research spreads worldwide. The program makes tissue samples available to reputable researchers elsewhere. Its scientists have contributed to the Million Person Study, which evaluates the health effects among workers and veterans following prolonged exposure to radiation over time. The USTUR developed a searchable database that standardized all available records for all USTUR registrants, a massive undertaking that took over a decade to finish. And Tolmachev and the USTUR's other faculty consult and speak at international gatherings.
Most recently, the USTUR partnered with WSU Tri-Cities's Cougar Tracks program to establish a Department of Energy-funded Radiological and Nuclear Security Leadership Academy at WSU. The program is designed to meet the nation's growing demand for expertise in radiochemistry, radiation protection, and radiological security.
Said Tolmachev, "It is clear that USTUR research would not be possible without our registrants. To me, this unique program cannot be re-created today, and its long-term mission must continue even after the last registrant has passed. We will continue learning from the life histories of plutonium and uranium workers to advance radiation protection."
WSU holds 'radium girls' tissue and bone samples
Among the materials held by the U.S. Transuranium and Uranium Registries archive are tissue and bone samples from the "radium girls." These were women factory workers in the early 20th century who were poisoned painting watch faces and instrument dials using glow-in-the-dark radium paint.
The radium dial workers, needing a fine point on their paintbrushes, would put the tip of a brush between their lips to sharpen it, in the process swallowing dangerous amounts of the radioactive element.
Radium poisoning caused their bones to decay. A dentist in New York was the first to identify what he called "radium jaw" in a woman who had worked in a New Jersey dial painting plant. Radium dial workers also developed severe anemia and bone cancer. By 1927 dozens of radium dial workers had died from radium poisoning. Eventually some workers successfully sued their employer, leading to workplace reforms and increased attention to worker safety and health standards.
Studies were done at that time on the dial workers and on people who used radium for therapeutic purposes before its dangers were known. Later, bone and tissue collected during that time were consolidated with newer studies at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The Argonne program was terminated in the early 1990s and the materials were to be disposed of, but instead they were transferred to WSU's National Human Radiobiology Tissue Repository at the USTUR.
Washington State University published this content on June 25, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 25, 2026 at 13:16 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]