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Our people-our expertise: Peter Medley

Our people-our expertise

Peter Medley

Qualifications | Research interests | Publications | Presentations | Memberships

Over 20 years of experience in radiation protection, including environmental radiochemistry, gamma surface surveys, radon monitoring and dose assessment. Specialist expertise in techniques for low-level measurement of environmental radioactivity, alpha and gamma spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting techniques. A current PhD student at the Australian National University, studying radiochemistry and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS).

Qualifications

  • PhD (student) in Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra. Thesis: Environmental fate and transport of Ac-227 and Pa-231 – commenced 2015.
  • Bachelor of Science (HONS 2A), Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory.
  • Bachelor of Biological Sciences, Northern Territory University, Northern Territory.

Research interests and expertise

  • Method development and applications of low-level measurement of environmental radioactivity.
  • Measurement of environmental radioactivity for human health and environmental impact assessment.
  • Use of radioactive isotopes as tracers for environmental processes.
  • Health physics and contaminated site assessments.
  • Uranium mining, mineral sands mining and radioactivity in water.

Publications

Medley P, Patterson S (2021) Determining baseline radiation levels in marine biota – a comparison of SE Queensland commercial species. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 255: 107032. DOI10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.107032

Medley P, Tims SG, Froehlich MB, Fifield LK, Bollhöfer A, Wallner A, Pavetich S (2019) Development of  231Pa AMS measurements to improve radiological dose assessment from uranium mining and milling. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 438:66-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2018.07.030

Doering C, Medley P, Orr B, Urban D (2018). Tissue to whole organism conversion factors derived from an Australian tropical dataset. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 189: 31-39. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2018.03.002

Doering C, Bollhöfer A, Medley P (2017). Estimating doses from Aboriginal bush foods post-remediation of a uranium mine. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 172: 74-80. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.03.014

Medley P, Doering C, Evans F., Bollhöfer A (2017). Natural radionuclides and stable elements in weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) from tropical northern Australia. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 178-179: 404-410. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.05.003

Zawadzki A, Cook M, Cutmore B, Evans F, Fierro D, Gedz A, Harrison JJ, Loosz T, Medley P, Mokhber-Shahin L, Mullins S, Sdraulig S (2017). Comparison of radium-228 determination in water among Australian laboratories. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 178-179: 411-418. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2017.05.012

Medley P, Bollhöfer A (2016). Influence of group II metals on Radium-226 concentration ratios in the native Green Plum (Buchanania obovata) from the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, Australia. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 151 part 3: 551-557 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.07.013

Tracy C, McWhorter T, Gienger C, Matthias Starck J, Medley P, Manolis S, Webb G, Christian K (2015). Alligators and Crocodiles Have High Paracellular Absorption of Nutrients, But Differ in Digestive Morphology and Physiology. Integrative and Comparative Biology 2015, 55(6): 986-1004 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icv060.

Medley P, Martin P, Bollhöfer A, Parry D (2014). 228Ra and 226Ra measurement on a BaSO4 co-precipitation source. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 95: 200-207. DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2014.09.015

Medley P, Bollhöfer A, Parry D, Martin P (2013). Radium concentration factors in passionfruit (Passiflora foetida) from the Alligator Rivers Region, Northern Territory, Australia. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 126: 137-146. DOI:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2013.07.018

Medley P, Bollhöfer A, Martin P (2013). Variability of procedural blanks leads to greater uncertainty in assessing detection limits for the measurement of polonium-210. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 296(2): 1155-1162. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-012-2179-y

Selected unpublished reports

Medley P, & Evans F (2018). Procedure Manual – Radiochemistry Laboratory. Internal Report 581, February, Supervising Scientist, Darwin.

Medley P (2016). Pb-210 determination using liquid scintillation counting (LSC). Internal Report 627, November, Supervising Scientist, Darwin.

Bollhöfer A, Medley P, Marshall S (2015). A summary and review of eriss’ groundwater chemistry data at Ranger uranium mine. Internal Report 631, February 2015, Supervising Scientist, Darwin.

Medley P, Pfitzner, J (2013). ROIripper – Alpha Spectrometry Software Operators Manual. Internal Report 621, November, Supervising Scientist, Darwin.

Presentations

November 2024: Protactinium-231: A new isotope for the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility, with Tims S, Froehlich M, Bollhöfer AIn: 8th Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposium (HIAS), 11–13 November 2024, Canberra.

November 2024: New techniques to assess 231Pa and 227Ac abundance and transfer in environmental media, with Tims S, Froehlich M, Bollhöfer AIn: Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

September 2024: Radiological dose assessment for actinium-227 and protactinium-231 to wildlife from uranium mining in Australia, with Tims S, Froehlich M, Bollhöfer AIn: 17th biennial conference of the South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association (SPERA), 2–5 September 2024, Melbourne.

September 2024: SPERA-IUR 2024 Workshop: Radiation Sciences, Queensland HealthIn: IUR Regional Workshop – IUR Post‑Conference Workshop on Environmental Radioactivity in the Asia-Pacific Environment, 6 September 2024, Melbourne

October 2023: IAEA/AQ/12 methods for Po separation (DDTC/CHCl3 and Sr-90 resin) for a range of samples; Micro-precipitation technique for preparation of Po-210; Calculating measurement uncertainty, specifically using the Kragten (1994) spreadsheet approach and including exercises and a spreadsheet tool for calculation of results. In: 2023 Training Workshop of IAEA’s ALMERA Network on Advanced Topics in Radiochemistry Techniques: Lead-210 and Polonium-210 [online]

October 2023: Groundwater influence on uptake of radium, polonium-210 and lead-210 in freshwater mussels (Velesunio ambiguus), with Watson D. In: The Australasian Radiation Protection Society 2023 Conference, Gold Coast, Queensland.

November 2022: Actinium series radionuclides and their behaviour in the environment, with Tims S, Froehlich M, Bollhoefer AIn: 16th South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand.

November 2022: Optimisation of neodymium hydroxide micro-precipitation of  210Po  for alpha spectrometry source preparation, with Patterson S, Howell N, Froehlich M. In: 16th South Pacific Environmental Radioactivity Association Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand.

October 2022: Actinium series radionuclides and their behaviour in the environment. In: Department of Nuclear Physics and Accelerator Applications, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.

July 2022: Natural radioactivity in drinking water from groundwater in Central and Northern Queensland. In: RACI 2022 National Congress, Brisbane, Queensland.

April 2022: Measurement uncertainty and characteristic limits: Kragten (1994) with Alpha Spectrometry case study. In: IAEA Regional Workshop on Determination of Uncertainties and Characteristic Limits [online]

April 2022: Measurement uncertainty and characteristic limits: Kragten (1994) with Liquid Scintillation Counting case study. In: IAEA Regional Workshop on Determination of Uncertainties and Characteristic Limits [online]

November 2021: Measurement of ²³¹Pa for radiological dose assessment from uranium mining - with a focus on indigenous foods. In: The 15th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Sydney, New South Wales [online].

July 2019: Determining baseline radiation levels in marine biota – a comparison of SE Queensland commercial prawn species. In: SETAC-AU Conference, Darwin, Northern Territory.

November 2018: Separation of Ac using DGA resin and source preparation for alpha spectrometry via micro-precipitation without hyrdrofluoric acid. In: SPERA Conference 2018, Perth, Western Australia.

November 2018: Naturally occurring radionuclide analysis of prawns in Queensland and assessment of radiation dose [Poster], with Patterson S. In: SPERA Conference 2018, Perth, Western Australia.

November 2018: Filing in the gaps in radiological dose assessment from natural radioactivity: development of ²³¹Pa AMS measurements with the 14UD at ANU. In: Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposium, Australian National University, Canberra.

Memberships

Peter Medley
Advanced Health Physicist, Radiation and Nuclear Science
email: peter.medley@health.qld.gov.au
phone: +61 7 3096 2903