AW: Dose Rate in Bragin, Belarus

[Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Franz Schoenhofer

PhD, MR iR

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna

AUSTRIA

phone -43-0699-1168-1319





Harold,



The message from your associate seems mysterious.



I do not know, where Bregin or Bragin is, but I know for sure that

Chernobyl is in the Ukraine and that it is quite a distance to the

border of Belarus from there - sorry I did not want to waste the time to

look up the exact numbers. The NPP was situated on the river Pripyat,

Chernobyl being some miles away. Across the Pripyat river there is no

Belarus, not even 5.5 miles away. So what river is she talking about?



My dictionary says that "quire" refers to a a certain number of sheets

of a special paper format for book printing. For "quire points" no entry

could be found. If 12 quire points would be a normal amount of radiation

(what is that? Where was that measured etc. etc.) 68 quire points would

be about five to six times background "radiation" (dose rate? cpm?).

This would correspond to the increase in dose rate when moving from a

lime-stone area to a granitic one. So forget about it!



Even more mysterious the fact seems to me that your associate claimed,

that she was 5.5 miles from the (former) NPP of Chernobyl. To my

knowledge there still exists the socalled "30-miles exclusion zone"

which can only be visited with special permission. It is well known that

residents returned illegally, but they are natives of this area and very

old. What is your associate doing in the exclusion zone? Did she

illegally enter this area? Has she been on a "sightseeing tour"? Then

she should have been accompanied by some specialists. Is she pretending

to do some research? Then she should know fundamentals of radiation

protection. 



Are you sure that this is not a hoax by a journalist? 



Best regards,



Franz



------------------------------------------------------------------













> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

> Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-

> radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] Im Auftrag von Careway, Harold A. (GE

Energy)

> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 22. September 2004 19:37

> An: Radsafe (E-mail)

> Betreff: Dose Rate in Bragin, Belarus

> 

> I received the following question indirectly from an associate.

> "Where we were (Bregin - 5.5 miles from Chernobyl right across the

river)

> the radiation level is 68 quire points versus 12 quire points a normal

> amount of radiation. The question that I have is this how long could

we be

> in that intensity without suffering long-term physical harm. I would

like

> to

> go back again. "

> 

>  I'm sure she was referring to Bragin, Belarus but for the life of me

I

> can't guess what a "quire point" is.  I assume she miss heard the

word.

> I've reviewed IAEA report  IAEA-TECDOC-1240, "Present and future

> environmental Impact of the Chernobyl Accident" and perhaps I can get

an

> idea of the annual dose rate from it,  but I would really appreciate

any

> insight or references which might help.

> 

> Harold A. Careway

> <mailto:harold.careway@gene.ge.com>

> 1-408-925-6008





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