Experiments simulating radioactive dirty bomb explosions in an urban area were performed at the National Institute of NBC Protection (SUJCHBO v.v.i.), Czech Republic. A solution containing 99mTc radionuclide was dispersed by an explosion on an open-air model of a square covered with filters. Subsequently, spectra of gamma rays originating in contaminated filters were measured by a hand-held NaI(Tl) spectrometer and laboratory HPGe spectrometers. The ambient dose equivalent rate at measuring vessels was set as well. Self-made standards had been prepared by dripping a defined amount of 99mTc solution uniformly on the filters to set the 99mTc surface contamination of measured samples. The urban area model's radioactive contamination map was set using previously determined filters' locations. The defined amount of 99mTc solution was dripped non-homogenously on some filters to estimate the impact of non-homogenous filters' coverage by radioactive aerosol' particles.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rpd/ncad105 | DOI Listing |
J Radiat Res
January 2025
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch, Av. Tony Garnier, Lyon 69007, France.
Between 1949 and 1962 the Soviet Union performed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (SNTS) in Kazakhstan, resulting in widespread contamination of the surrounding region with radioactive fallout. Settlements in the southeast Abai oblast of Kazakhstan, close to the border with China, are not thought to have received significant fallout from the SNTS. There is, however, evidence that the study area, including Makanchi, Urdzhar and Taskesken villages, was contaminated by atmospheric nuclear tests performed by China at the Lop Nor NTS between 1964 and 1980.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Technol
January 2025
Xi'an AMS Center, State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Technology and Application, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, P. R. China.
There has been a sharp rise in the extent and scale of human activities since the mid-20th century, termed the "Great Acceleration", and nuclear activities are one of the defining technological processes for this period. Pu released by atmospheric nuclear weapons tests provides an ideal chronostratigraphic marker for labeling this change due to its global fallout feature, temporal mutation, and long half-lives. However, the accumulation dynamics of plutonium from atmospheric deposition to preservation in the sediment is still controversial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisaster Med Public Health Prep
January 2025
Centre for Research and Education in Emergency Care, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; REGEDIM, Free University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Emergency Medicine, ZNA Camp Stuivenberg, Antwerp, Belgium.
Objective: Expanding staff levels is a strategy for hospitals to increase their surge capacity. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether emergency health care workers (HCWs) are willing to work during crises or disasters, and which working conditions influence their decisions.
Methods: HCWs in the emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units (ICUs) of 5 Dutch hospitals were surveyed about various disaster scenarios.
Health Secur
December 2024
Jenna Mandel-Ricci, MPA, MPH, is Chief of Staff; both at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Long Island City, NY.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Greater New York Hospital Association held 3 workshops and 2 follow-up meetings with hospital emergency managers and colleagues to determine hospitals' response actions to a scenario of a 10-kiloton improvised nuclear device detonation. The scenario incorporated 3 zones of damage (moderate, light, and beyond damage zones) and covered the period of 0 to 72 hours postdetonation divided into 3 24-hour operational periods. The Joint Commission's critical emergency areas were used to determine the objectives and response actions that would be initiated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Radioact
December 2024
Graduate School of Human Environment, Osaka Sangyo University, Osaka, 5748530, Japan.
Tritium, a radioactive isotope produced naturally through cosmic radiation interactions and anthropogenically through nuclear weapons testing, poses potential environmental risks, particularly within the water cycle. This study measured tritium concentrations in surface water across Thailand to establish a baseline dataset for monitoring potential contamination from nuclear activities and accidents. Surface water samples were collected from 14 large reservoirs during the wet season in October 2023 and the dry season in February 2024, providing a total of 28 samples.
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