[ RadSafe ] 10 rem from lightning?? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Ted de Castro]

This should NOT be a controversy to the members of this listserver - but 
a known fact one way or the other!

As Health Physicsists we run the dosimetry programs!

The reports I've heard of x-rays from lightning are indications from 
electronic instruments and lightning also has a powerful EMP - so the 
results COULD be ambiguous!  BUT and indication from a passive dosimeter 
would be unambiguous and impossible to miss!

I ran the dosimetry department at a national laboratory for a few years 
were we encouraged people to take their badges home with them.  This was 
also in the day when we still used film and the image from the film 
spoke volumes about the nature of the exposure.  It gave indications of 
energy, size of the source and motion relative to the source during 
exposure - as well as exposure information.  In a facility where the 
vast majority of indications ran from 0 to trivial - any multi REM 
exposure was quite noticeable and one from a point source with no motion 
indications simply could not be missed.

Given the frequency of aircraft strikes reported and the number of 
people we had traveling with their badges as evidenced by the number of 
airport x-ray exposure I investigated - there is a good probability that 
I should have seen one of these.  For this group as a whole I'd suggest 
that IF the exposure were in the multi REM area - that it is a virtual 
certainty that someone here would have encountered such and anomalous 
exposure - or do we all just get multi REM exposures everyday??