Radiation radioactively contaminated

The accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) plant in Pennsylvania in 1979 led to many safety and environmental improvements (4—6). No harm from radiation resulted to TMI workers, to the pubHc, or to the environment (7,8), although the accident caused the loss of a 2 x 10 investment. The accident at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine in 1986, on the other hand, caused the deaths of 31 workers from high doses of radiation, increased the chance of cancer later in life for thousands of people, and led to radioactive contamination of large areas. This latter accident was unique to Soviet-sponsored nuclear power. The Soviet-designed Chemobyl-type reactors did not have the intrinsic protection against a mnaway power excursion that is requited in the test of the world, not was there a containment building (9—11). 

Equipment or system components generating radiation or contaminated by radioactive materials... 

Fallen in the hands of criminals, which as a rule have a very remote notion on the danger of ionizing radiation, radioactive sources become a serious threat for the life and health of the terrorists themselves, as well as of casual persons. And the attempt to extract the ampoule with the radioactive source from its protection block is equal to expose oneself to radiation. Besides, in the event of destruction of the ampoule containing radioactive material, radioactive contamination of a large territory can occur. Such an incident happened already in Taromskoe suburb of Dnepropetrovsk. 

Threats to chemical facilities from radioactive contamination could involve two major scenarios. First, the facility or its assets could be contaminated, preventing workers from accessing and operating the facility/assets. Second, the feed water supply could be contaminated. These two scenarios require different threat reduction strategies. The first scenario requires that facilities monitor for radioactive substances as they are brought on-site the second requires that feed water assets be monitored for radioactive contamination. While the effects of radioactive contamination are basically the same under both threat types, each of these threats requires different types of radiation monitoring and different types of equipment. 

Tikhomirov F.A., Shcheglov A.I., 1997. Consequences of radioactive contamination of forests in affected zone of accident on ChNPP, Radiation biology. Radioecology, 37(4) 664-672. 

JNREG (Joint Norwegian -Russian Expert Group Report). 1997. Sources contributing to radioactive contamination of the Techa River and areas surrounding the Mayak production association, Urals, Russia. Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, 134 pp. 

EPA, Technology Screening Guide for Radioactively Contaminated Sites, United States Office of Air and Radiation EPA 402-R-96-017, Washington, DC 20460, (November 1996)... 

Background Reduction. Two sources of radiation are the major cause of trouble in gamma-ray spectroscopy. The first is the gamma-rays emitted by radioactive contaminants contained in the shielding lead or in iron, aluminum, and stainless steel used in the detector housing and cryogenics system. The second source is the Compton radiation mentioned above. 

Radiological warfare(RW) may be defined as the employment of agents or weapons to produce residual radioactive contamination,as distinguished from the initial effects of a nuclear explosionfblast, thermal, and initial nuclear radiation) defense against such warfare (Ref 12,p 233)... 

Radioactive contamination as some background radiation from natural sources, such as radon, occurs in some regions of the world, but there is particular concern over the contamination of surface water and groundwater by radioactive compounds generated by the production of nuclear weapons and by the processing of nuclear fuel. Many of these areas have remained unrecognized because of government secrecy. 

Hand monitor (Radiation and Contamination Monitor) obtainable from Miniinstruments Ltd., 8 Station Industrial Estate, Bumham-on-Crouch, Essex CH0 8RN, U.K. (g-m meter type 5.10). A useful instrument for scanning chromatography columns, tubes, gels, etc. for 32P-radioactivity. Specially useful for checking against loss of small (or invisible) precipitates in the bottom of Eppendorf tubes. The instrument has a calibrated range of 0-2000 cps and incorporates a small speaker for aural indication of radioactivity. 

Glass is an important material in the construction of production equipment for radiopharmaceuticals. This material will become discolored and brittle when affected by radiation, and thus repair and/or change of parts of the equipment may be necessary. Due to radioactive contamination of the equipment, repair and maintenance can often be complicated, and time for decay must be included in the maintenance period. To secure the continuous supply of products, it may be necessary to construct two production lines in separate production units, where one is kept as a backup facility. 

The operations with SNF and RW at CMB in Andreeva Bay and Gremikha are most hazardous for personnel, where in individual buildings, storage facilities and at open-air pads local radioactive contamination areas are found with rather high radiation levels. 

Several more hours were necessary to establish the lack of significant man-caused radioactive contamination of seawater and bottom sediments accordingly, the monitoring program was re-oriented toward discovering initial indices of marine environment contamination. Underwater radiation monitoring complex PRM-K with 1-... 

The most accmate estimates of population exposme due to radioactive contamination of marine water can be performed through direct dose calculations via different exposure paths. Evaluation calculations can be done in compliance with the Methodic Guides "Estimate of the impacts of radiation-hazardous operations performed by nuclear shipbuilding enterprises on the environment and population " [5]. 

RW stored at SRW TSF are not only a high-active source of external y-radiation, but also a source of radionuclide migrations via ground beyond the pad boundaries and thus a source of potential contamination of marine ecosystems. Comparisons of the results of investigations performed in 1999 [2] and in 2003 [5] revealed an increase in surface of contaminated areas around SRW TSF, not only containers with SFAs but also those with SRW being sources of radioactive contamination. 

It is important to distinguish between radiation and radioactive contamination. Radiation is energy emitted by atoms that are unstable. Radiation travels through space to some extent—some kinds of radiation can only travel a few millimeters, whereas other types can travel for many meters. Radioactive contamination is the presence of radiation-emitting substances (radioactive materials or RAM) in a place where it is not desired. A patient may be contaminated with radioactive materials, but that patient will not be inherently radioactive and can be decontaminated. Radioactive materials, by comparison, are inherently radioactive—it is a physical property of that material in the same manner as mass or size—and they remain radioactive until they decay to stability. 

Both patients and medical staff are understandably concerned about the health effects of exposure to radiation and radioactive contamination. There are two distinct types of radiation exposure, acute and chronic, and two primary exposure modes, radiation and radioactive contamination. Each exposure type and mode is slightly different and must be treated differently by medical staff (see Table 27.2). In addition, there are concerns about the reproductive effects of radiation exposure. In this section, these concerns will be discussed. 

In the event of a terrorist attack, people will suffer physical and psychological trauma. Physical effects will include the effects of exposure to any explosion—broken bones, burns, shock, lacerations, and so forth. These may be compounded by the presence of radioactive contamination and, in some cases, radiation illness. In addition, any terrorist attack will, by definition, inflict psychological trauma, and medical personnel must be prepared to receive many patients who are worried, panicked, or suffering psychosomatically in spite of being physically well. In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, even a simple headache or anxiety attack may be seen as evidence of radiation sickness. 

One caveat is that radioactive sources may be incorporated into an RDD, and they may survive the explosion intact. Such sources could give very high radiation doses to personnel handling them and could lead to localized radiation burns. In most cases, however, patients are expected to exhibit injuries typical from an explosion itself, with the presence of radioactive contamination as a complicating factor. 

For the monitoring of personnel radiation exposures, measurement of radioactive contamination and surveying of laboratories and equipment, and for the detection of radionuclides incorporated in the human body, various detectors and instruments are used. The principles of operation of these detectors have been discussed in the previous sections of this chapter. 

Radioactive contamination Contamination with radioactive matter Radioactive decay Change of unstable atomic nuclei into other stable or unstable nuclei, associated with emission of nuclear radiation Radioactive equilibria Definite ratios between the activities of mother and daughter nuclides, given by their decay constants... 

Cancer is the major effect of low radiation doses expected from exposure to radioactive contamination. Laboratory studies have shown that a-, /S-, and y-radiation can produce cancer in virtually every tissue type and organ in animals that have been studied (ATSDR, 2001). Cancers observed in humans after exposure to radioactive contamination or ionizing radiation include cancers of the lungs, female breast, bone, thyroid, and skin. Different kinds of cancers have different latency periods leukemia can appear within 2yr after exposure, while cancers of the breast, lungs, stomach, and thyroid have latency periods greater than 20 yr. Besides cancer, there is little evidence of other human health effects from low-level radiation exposure (ATSDR, 2001 Harley, 2001). 

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