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Re: Russian Criticality accident

At 09:05 AM 6/25/97 -0500, you wrote:
>At 08:25 1997-06-25 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>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. 
>
>
>There are some clues about the dose: The information that Zakharov lost
>consciousness immediately after reporting the accident and the fact that he
>survived only 3 days in hospital. If both (i.e. the first one) are correct
>I assume that he must have received a dose of at least 50 Sv or thereabouts. 
>
>
>Bjorn Sandstrom
>FOA NBC Defence
>S-901 82 Umea
>Sweden
>
>E-mail: sandstrom@ume.foa.se
>

Bjorn's estimate seems to be more realistic.  In the US criticality at
Wood River Junction decades ago, the individual received a dose of about
100 Gy, stated that he felt like he was on fire (CNS) and died a few days 
later.  A dose of 6 Gy shouldn't have caused him to lose consciousness
unless he fainted from the stress.  He was an educated individual and would
have been aware of the severity and potential outcome of the accident.


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      _/_/        _/_/      _/_/_/_/   Robert M. Loesch
     _/  _/    _/   _/     _/         US Department of Energy
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_/_/_/       _/_/     _/_/_/_/   loesch@spok.eh.doe.gov
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 "The definition of a public health disaster is a catastrophe so large
     that an epidemiologic study can detect it."    David Ozonoff