Chromosome aberrations induced in human lymphocytes by U-235 fission neutrons: I. Irradiation of human blood samples in the "dry cell" of the TRIGA Mark II nuclear reactor.

A set-up for irradiation of biological samples in the TRIGA Mark II research reactor in Ljubljana is described. Threshold activation detectors were used for characterisation of the neutron flux, and the accompanying gamma dose was measured by TLDs. Human peripheral blood samples were irradiated "in vitro" and biological effects evaluated according to the unstable chromosomal aberrations induced. Biological effects of two types of cultivation of irradiated blood samples, the first immediately after irradiation and the second after 96 h storage, were studied. A significant difference in the incidence of chromosomal aberrations between these two types of samples was obtained, while our dose-response curve fitting coefficients alpha 1 = (7.71 +/- 0.09) x 10(-2) Gy-1 (immediate cultivation) and alpha 2 = (11.03 +/- 0.08) x 10(-2) Gy-1 (96 h delayed cultivation) are in both cases lower than could be found in the literature.