Re: [Fwd: [DOEWatch] Deadly toll of Chernobyl]

[Michael McNaughton <mcnaught@lanl.gov>]

At 02:27 PM 4/25/00 -0500, you wrote:
>The people died within relatively short time were the fire fighters, who
>prevented fire to be spread to the other units. 

I believe only 6 of the 28 or 29 who died of acute radiation syndrome (ARS)
were firefighters, the others were operators and engineers, workers already
at the Chernobyl site. Furthermore, these 6 firefighters were all members
of the first patrol to arrive. They immediately went up to the roof and
stayed there for several hours. As near as I can tell, none of the other
firefighters died of ARS.

This is important because it suggests that their deaths could have been
avoided if they had received simple training and used the standard
principles of time and distance to reduce their dose.

mike

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