Chernobyl first response

[mcnaught@lanl.gov (Mike McNaughton)]

I am preparing Emergency Responder Rad Training for the Los Alamos Fire
Dept, and I want to use the first few hours of the Chernobyl emergency as
an example. (This does not imply that anyone thinks this is likely at Los
Alamos). I realise not much is known about the first few hours of the
emergency response at Chernobyl, but I would like comments on whether the
following conclusions are reasonable.

1. Respiratory protection: in the first few hours of the emergency response
at Chernobyl, most firemen used no respiratory protection; some used gauze
(surgical) masks.

2. Protective clothing: the clothing worn by the firemen had openings that
allowed radioactive fallout to get onto the skin.

3. Dosimetry: although the firemen knew of the 25 rad dose limit or
guideline, they had no way to measure this; they had no personal dosimetry,
and no radiation detection instruments.

4. Shallow dose: the most serious radiation dose was from beta-emitting
nuclides which settled on the skin and clothing, and remained there for
several hours; the shallow dose rate from this fallout was of order 100
rad/hr.

5. In a hypothetical accident comparable to Chernobyl, if the emergency
responders used SCBAs, standard fire-dept protective clothing with taped
openings, self-reading alarming dosimeters, and ion-chamber radiation
detectors to monitor themselves and their surroundings, there would
probably not be any acute radiation sickness.

I would appreciate any comments. Thank you, mike.

"Shlala gashle" (Zulu greeting, meaning "Stay safe")
mike (mcnaught@LANL.GOV)