RE: 60th criticality accident

["Minnema, Douglas" <Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>]

Dear RADSAFErs,

I want to submit a correction to one of my previous messages, partially
quoted below.  Apparently in my haste to get the information out, I did not
check my sources properly, but rather relied on my sometimes faulty memory.

Both of the recent criticality accidents in Russia occurred in 1997, about a
month apart, rather than one in 1997 and one in 1998.  The sequence is
correct, though, with the second one being the fatality.

Sorry for the error.

Doug Minnema, Ph.D. CHP
Defense Programs, DOE
<Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>

what few thoughts i have are truly my own

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Minnema, Douglas [SMTP:Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov]
> 
> Technically, you should also add some reactor accidents.  SL-1 and
> Chernobyl
> were criticality accidents, along with one in Brazil in 1980, TMI was not.
> Also, there have been somewhere on the order of 14 criticality accidents
> in
> the Former Soviet Union, including two very recent ones (1 in 1997, 1 in
> 1998).  Fatalities acknowledged from these accidents include 3 at SL-1,
> 30(?) at Chernobyl, 1 in Brazil, and 1 in the 1998 FSU accident.  The FSU
> has also reported at least 5 fatalities, 1 blinding, and 1 amputation of
> both legs from the other events (not including the 1998 event).
> 

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