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1900-1970 Medical advantage of X rays was so great It outweighed disadvantages BUT

What we should have learned from past experience What can we learn from Fukushima about accident management Richard Wilson Department of Physics Harvard University Seminar on Planetary emergencies Erice, Sicily August 20 th 2011.

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1900-1970 Medical advantage of X rays was so great It outweighed disadvantages BUT

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  1. What we should have learned from past experienceWhat can we learn from Fukushimaabout accident managementRichard WilsonDepartment of Physics Harvard UniversitySeminar on Planetary emergenciesErice, Sicily August 20th 2011

  2. Medical X raysHiroshima-NagasakiWindscaleThree Mile IslandChernobylalsoMultistage theories of Cancer (Sir Richard Doll)

  3. 1900-1970 • Medical advantage of X rays was so great • It outweighed disadvantages • BUT • advantage could be the same but • disadvantage (dose) was reduced a factor of 150 • (International Commission on Radiation protection (ICRP) and Physicists

  4. Hiroshima-Nagasaki • Atomic Bomb Casualty commission (ABCC) • now • Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) • UNSCEAR 100,000 or so papers • Most people died of blast • 5000 died or will die of excess radiation • Prompt radiation • What is the effect of lower dose rate? • (only real study is that at Techa River)

  5. Acute Radiation Sickness • An acute dose from dose within a few days • LD50 - 250 Rem (2.5 Sv) • LD50 after blood transfusion -350 Rems (3.5 Sv) • (Canadian Louis Slotin July 1945) • Evacuate to avoid acute dose Chronic effect • If just below acute dose 10% -20% increase of cancer probability • (increasing if exposure continues)

  6. Windscale 1957Well known iodine cycle:Iodine drops on grass: cows eat grassconcentrate in milk: babies drink milkconcentrate in thyroidGraphite reactor caught fire.Iodine releasediodine impounded for 100 miles downwindno casualties

  7. Studies on Stress are not definitive5% aincrease is plausible • Human studies • Handbook of psychophysiology • By John T. Cacioppo, Louis G. Tassinary, Gary G. Berntson. • “Health effects of relocation following disaster: a systematic review of the literature by Lori Uscher-Pine • Disasters, 33(1):1-22 (2009) • Animal studies NTP control groups • “Megamouse” study

  8. Three Mile Island • Core melted but inside containment • Hydrogen explosion inside containment • Probably iodine came out in water as HI • (no harm) • Unauthorized NRC man panicked and called for evacuation • Kemeny commission noted stress due to evacuation

  9. CHERNOBYL Secrecy was involved: those advising not to drink milk were reprimanded Cesium 134 and 137 were and are the main culprits. Integrated dose was mostly after a few days Evacuation from Pripyat was a day late but in time and well arranged. Chistalogovka 3 days late Distinction between compulsion and voluntary evacuation not clear. ‘What is not forbidden is compulsory” Panic in Europe (Stockholm) set rules for reentry (reindeer meat: British objected: welsh lamb, etc)

  10. Integrate by taking peak and half width • Integrated Dose at main gate through March 16th • 2-3 Rems (0.02 -0.03 Sv) • Nowhere near enough for Acute Radiation Sickness

  11. Highest Integrated Dose about • 15 Rems (0.15 Sv) • (in open – 4 times less indoors) Increase in cancer probability: 1 to 2 % (more for younger, less for older) Compare to 5% x e^(+/- 1) from stress

  12. Chairman Gregory Jaczkotestimony in US CongressMarch 17th 2011 • Recently, the NRC made a recommendation that based on the available information that we have, that for a comparable situation in the United States, we would recommend an evacuation to a much larger radius than has currently been provided in Japan. As a result of this recommendation, the ambassador in Japan has issued a statement to American citizens that we believe it is appropriate to evacuate to a larger distance up to approximately 50 miles.

  13. should you compulsory evacuate? • should you assist a voluntary evacuation? • should you encourage sensible efforts to keep the dose down? • How do you stop irresponsible comments? • (Gregory Jacsko on March 17th • Physicians for Social (Ir)Resposibility

  14. What other doses are there? Calculate your own. • http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/ • (mine was 2.4 Rem last year -2 cat scans) • Many actions can give anyone a dose of 1 Rem: • A single chest x ray in a major hospital as late as 1960. • A CAT scan today. • 3 months average public dose • 1/25 of what a Chernobyl clean up worker got • 1/100 of an astronaut's allowed dose. • About the dose I got in 1991 from a day at Chernobyl mostly inside the sarcophagus

  15. Earthquake in Haiti 200,000 • Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan 30,000 • Fatal cancers from Chernobyl in next 60 years (calculated ) • 4,000 -  8000 • in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine • 20,000 world wide • Fatal cancers calculated from Natural Background (including medical) exposures in US • 6,000 per year • Cancer fatalities from Three Mile Island • 0.7 calculated for the Kemeny Commission • 0 - 5,000 adverse health effects of evacuation from Fukushima.

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