Re: New Dosimeter for Emergency Personnel

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>]

At 11:57 AM 3/20/00 -0600, you wrote:
>At Chernobyl the firemen were the only ones there they new there was 
>radiation they did what they were trained to do - and some of them paid with 
>there lives.

Based on the reports, there is no indication that the firemen at Chernobyl
had any idea there was radiation. They took no action to protect
themselves. The reactor operators were in denial; the RCT thought his
detector was broken. Nobody warned the firemen.

The 6 or 7 firemen who died were all members of the first 7-man patrol to
arrive on the scene, They stayed on the roof for several hours until
relieved by firemen from Kiev. If they had the equivalent of an old civil
defence CDV detector and training in the use of time, distance, and
shielding, they need not have died.

mike

Mike McNaughton
email: mcnaught@LANL.gov or mcnaughton@LANL.gov
phone: (505)667-6130
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