B.Tech.

Third Year
(6th Semester)

DEPARTMENT OF BME

BM0302
Nuclear Medicine
 Nuclear accidents and nuclear incident

• A nuclear accident
or nuclear incident, depending
on the severity, is known to
inadvertent releases of radioactive
materials, accidental or radioactivity
levels likely to harm public health.
 Nuclear accidents and nuclear incident

• Is described as a nuclear accident or incident according to its

severity and its impacton the population and the environment.
• Radiological accidents can happen at a nuclear plant or outside,
ie in a facility thatconducts a nuclear activity (hospitals,
research laboratories ...) or due to the loss of a radioactive
source, or by spreading involuntary or voluntary radioactive
substances intothe environment.
• To measure the severity of an event, there is an international
scale: INES scale.
International Nuclear Event Scale
 Level 0: Deviation
 No safety significance.
 Examples:
4 June 2008: Krško, Slovenia: Leakage from the primary
cooling circuit.
17 December 2006, Atucha, Argentina: Reactor shutdown
due to tritium increase in reactor compartment.
13 February 2006: Fire in Nuclear Waste Volume Reduction
Facilities of the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in
Tokaimura.
 Level 1: Anomaly

• Impact on the defense in depth. Greater exposure to legal
limits annual member of the
public, minor problems with security elements
and components to defense in depthremaining and theft or
loss of a source of low-level radioactivity.
 Level 2: Incident

• Impact on people and the environment. Exposure of
a member of the public to more than 10 mSv and exposure of
a worker in excess of legal limits annually.
Radiological damage and control barriers. Radiation level in
an operational area of more than 50 mSv / h and radioactive
contamination within the facility is not prepared in thedesign.
Impact on the defense in depth.
Example: Incident at nuclear plant Asco
 Level 3: Serious incident

 Impact on people and the environment. Exhibition of
10 or more times the legal annuallimit for workers and non-lethal
effects produced by radiation.
Radiological damage and control barriers. Exhibition of more
than 1 Sv / h in a work zone.
Impact on the defense in depth
Example: THORP plant Sellafield (United Kingdom) – 2005.
Paks Nuclear Power Plant (Hungary), 2003; fuel rod damage in
cleaning tank.
Vandellos Nuclear Power Plant (Spain), 1989; fire destroyed many
control systems; the reactor was shut down
 Level 4: Accident with local consequences

 Impact on people or
the environment. Minor release of
radioactive material that may be
required, albeit unlikely, measures of oppo
sition. At least one death by radiation.
Radiological damage and control barriers. 
Molten fuel or damaged and release
significant amounts of radiation with
probability of public exposure.
Example: Accident Accident Tokaimura nu
clear reactor RA-2, Argentina
 Level 5: Accident with wider consequences

• Impact on people or the environment. Limited release of

radioactive material
that mightrequire measures of opposition. Several deaths fro
m radiation.
Example: Windscale Fire, 1 3 Goiânia.2 Radiological
Accident
Radiological damage and control barriers.
There is serious damage to the reactor core and causes the
release of radioactivematerial in
a facility that generates risk of public exposure that
could result from acritical accident or fire.
Example: Accident at Three Mile Island.
 Level 6: Serious accident

 Impact on people and environment

 Significant release of radioactive material likely to require
implementation of planned countermeasures.
 There has been only one such event to date:
Kyshtym disaster at Mayak, Soviet Union, 29 September 1957. A
failed cooling system at a military nuclear waste reprocessing
facility caused a steam explosion that released 70–80 tons of highly
radioactive material into the environment. Impact on local
population is not fully known. This is the only accident to go over
5 on the scale besides Chernobyl and Fukushima
Level 7: Major accident

• Impact on people and

environmentMajor release of
radio­active ­material with
widespread health and
environmental effects
requiring implementation of
planned and extended ­
countermeasures
 Level 7: Major accident

• There have been two such events to date: Chernobyl disaster,

26 April 1986. A power surge during a test procedure
resulted in a criticality accident, leading to a powerful steam
explosion and fire that released a significant fraction of core
material into the environment, resulting in a death toll of 56
as well as estimated 4,000 additional cancer fatalities among
people exposed to elevated doses of radiation.

• As a result, the city of Chernobyl (pop. 14,000) was largely

abandoned, the larger city of Pripyat (pop. 49,400) was
completely abandoned, and a 30 km exclusion zone was
established.
 Level 7: Major accident

 Fukushima I nuclear accidents, a series of events beginning on 11

March 2011. Rated level 7 on 11 April 2011 by the Japanese
government's nuclear safety agency.[2][3] Major damage to the
backup power and containment systems caused by the 2011
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami resulted in overheating and
leaking from some of the Fukushima I nuclear plant's reactors.
Each reactor accident was rated separately; out of the six reactors,
three were rated level 5, one was rated at a level 3, and the
situation as a whole was rated level 7.[4] An exclusion zone of 20
km was established around the plant as well as a 30 km voluntary
evacuation zone
 Out of scale

 There are also events of no safety relevance, characterized as "out

of scale".
 Examples:17 November 2002, Natural Uranium Oxide Fuel Plant
at the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, India: A chemical
explosion at a fuel fabrication facility.
 29 September 1999: H.B. Robinson, United States: A tornado
sighting within the protected area of the nuclear power
plant (NPP).
 5 March 1999: San Onofre, United States: Discovery of suspicious
item, originally thought to be a bomb, in nuclear power plant.
 The effects of an accidental exposure

• The severity of effects increases with the dose, duration and age of

the person. In case of accident, the doctor determined from the
dose received medical examinations.
 Exhibition Severity Symptoms
Some millisieverts  only possible long-term

Several hundred millisieverts No immediate effect Possible temporary nausea and

 slight fever

Between 1 000 and 2 remarkable medical Effect  vomiting, fatigue,

000 millisieverts fever, risk of infection, cancer

Between 2 000 and 4 serious medical Effect  vomiting, fever, digestive

000 millisieverts disorders, bleeding, hair loss,
leukemia, other cancers

Between 4 000 and 10  probability greater property

000 millisievertsand than 50% death, damage neurological (dizzines
s, disorientation) and cancers o
f many types
Excess of 10 000 mSv  safe Death