Re: Russian Criticality accident

[Lester.Slaback@nist.gov]

>Boyd Rose has made the comment that the report of the accident contains
>some interesting statements. One further one is the reported dose of 600
>roentgens of neutron radiation. Such a statement must have come from a
>scientific source and it concerns me that such errors are being made.
>With the unfortunate death of the researcher within such a short time of
>exposure, it would be informative to have the correct units (rems or
>sieverts) of the dose he received. 
> * David J. Hornsey, Radiation Safety.*

The use of roentgen is just one indicator that this information is
suspect. It is also somewhat suprising that a 600 R? exposure led to such
an early death given our treatment knowledge these days.  But if the
R=rad, then the effective dose would be a rather large number, consistent
with this death.

But getting a good dose estimate will likely take some time.  All of the
above is just guesswork based on suspect facts.
Reconstruction of such events is a slow process.


-- 
the above are the personal musing of the author,
and do not represent any past, current, or future
position of NIST, the U.S. Government, or anyone else
who might think that they are in a position of authority.
NBSR Health Physics
NIST
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
301 975-5810
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Lester.Slaback@nist.gov
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