UFP

Passo Fundo
Accidents in Nuclear Physics
Part II: from Juaréz to Goiânia

Johnny Ferraz Dias

Laboratório de Implantação Iônica
Instituto de Física
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
 Radiation
Used as Therapy
 Teletherapy
 External Beam Radiotherapy - EBRT
 Co and Cs Machines
 60Co (t1/2 = 5.3 years)
 137Cs (t1/2 = 30.2 years)
 Activity:  103 Ci/g
 Pros: reliable and simple to mantain
 Cons: Radioactive source
Radiation Therapy
Lead


Teletherapy
Teletherapy
Teletherapy

Gordon Isaacs - 1957

Teletherapy
Source – 60Co (pellet)
Source – 137Cs (powder)
 Juárez (1983)
 Mexican city on the border
with US
 Cobalt machine
 Considered the worst US accident
with radioactive material
 Events
 System abandoned in a therapy
clinic
 Technician gets the machine
 Source taken apart
 pellets scattered in a truck
 Material sold as scrap
 Events
 Scrap sold to metal industry in
Mexico
 Table legs
 Iron for construction
 Goods exported to US
 Rota
Los Alamos

Juárez
Los Alamos
 Results
 People ( 4000) exposed to  rays
 Vast contamination area
 37 thousand tons of contaminated
material recovered
 1 death
 Cromossomic aberrations in locals
 Goiânia (1987)
 Cs machine abandoned
 People exposed to radiation
 Dangerous situation
 Powder (cesium clorine)
 Contamination (contact)
 Events
 Machine abandoned in a clinic
 2 garbage collectors open the
source
 Exposition to radiation
 Simptoms
 vomit
 diarrhea
 Events
 1 medical diagnosis:
allergy due to rot food
 Capsule violated
 contamination
 Parts sold to a crap yard
 Events
 Capsule emitts a blue light
 Relative and neighbors get in
contact with the source
 Spreading of radioactive material
among different people and places
 Events
 Several people showing simptoms
related to radiation exposure
 Pieces of the source is taken to the
local sanitary authorities
 After 19 days, contamination with
radioactive material is identified
 Results
 Several places isolated
 More than 100 thousand people
screened for contamination
 249 people: external contamination
 “Prussian Blue” (Fe7(CN)18)
 4 deaths
 Radioactive material (3500 m3)
Mexico - 2013
Mexico - 2013
Symbol
 Conclusion
 Risks involved during early
understanding of nuclear
physics
 Knowledge and education is
key for safety