Title: Indicators of biological age and accelerated aging in liquidators of the consequences of radiation emergency
Author: E. I. Puchkova, N. V. Alishev
Reference: Advances in Gerontology , October 2011, Volume 1, Issue 4, pp 346-351
DOI: 10.1134/S2079057011040151
Keywords: biological age, accelerated aging, social-hygienic factors, functional classes of biological age, radiation accidents, medical consequences
Abstract: The biological age (BA) of the majority of liquidators of the consequences of radiation accidents in the navy and of the liquidators of the Chernobyl NPP accident exceeds the average standard and their DBA (due BA). The BA index can be a characteristic of the influence of social-hygienic factors on the health conditions in the Special Risk Subunit whose members liquidated the consequences of the radiation accidents. It was established that the radiation effect pertains to factors dramatically increasing BA and the rate of senescence in this group of people.
ＵＲＬ：http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S2079057011040151
Title: First measurements of 238Pu and 238Pu/137Cs activity ratio in Montenegro soil
Author: Nevenka M. Antovic, Perko Vukotic, Nikola Svrkota, Sergey K. Andrukhovich
Reference: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry , July 2012, Volume 293, Issue 1, pp 299-302
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-012-1661-x
Keywords: 238Pu activity, 238Pu/137Cs ratio, Soil, Montenegro
Abstract: Plutonium-238 (238Pu) activity concentrations in soil samples from Montenegro (six samples from three localities) have been measured for the first time. The 238Pu/137Cs activity ratio was determined on the basis of alpha and gamma-spectrometric measurements, and found to be with an average of 0.0006 and standard deviation of 0.0003. By using the activity ratios determined in the present study, 238Pu activity concentrations were estimated for three localities in the central: one in the northern, and two in the eastern part of Montenegro.
ＵＲＬ：http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-012-1661-x
Title: Study on the rate of plutonium vertical migration in various soil types of Lublin region (Eastern Poland)
Author: Jolanta Orzeł, Andrzej Komosa
Reference: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, January 2014, Volume 299, Issue 1, pp 643-649
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-013-2774-6
Keywords: Plutonium isotopes, Alpha spectrometry, Migration rate, Soil profile
Abstract: Soil contamination level with 239+240Pu of Lublin region was determined using the alpha spectrometric method. Results were compared with similar data from the study performed 15 year earlier. Decrease in total 239+240Pu concentration and reducing quantity of Chernobyl fraction (up to almost negligible value of 1 %) has been observed in upper soil layer. Determination of 239+240Pu concentration in soil profile layers allows calculating a vertical migration velocity of plutonium applying a compartment migration model. It was found that 239+240Pu migration rate varies depending on soil type from 0.29 cm year−1 in Podsols to 0.58 cm year−1 in Fluvisols with mean value of 0.5 cm year−1.
ＵＲＬ：http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-013-2774-6
Title: On peculiarities of vertical distribution of 239,240Pu, 238Pu and 137Cs activity concentrations and their ratios in lake sediments and soils
Author: B. Lukšienė, E. Maceika, N. Tarasiuk, E. Koviazina, V. Filistovič, Š. Buivydas, A. Puzas Reference: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry , February 2014
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-014-3026-0
Keywords: 238Pu, 239,240Pu, 137Cs, Origin, Lake sediments, Upland and flooded soils, Vertical profiles
Abstract: Distributions of 239,240Pu, 238Pu and 137Cs activity concentrations in the cores of sediments in the shallow lake, flooded and upland forest soils taken in the vicinity of Vilnius city were analyzed. The radiochemical, α-spectrometric and mass spectrometric methods were used for the plutonium evaluation and γ-spectrometry was used for the radiocesium evaluation. The only peak of enhanced radionuclide activity concentrations was determined for the lake bottom sediments, whereas vertical profiles of the radionuclide activity concentrations in flooded and upland forest soil cores were distinguished by two peaks. The obtained values of the activity concentration ratio 238Pu/239,240Pu and the isotopic ratio 240Pu/239Pu indicated that the global fallout was a source of plutonium in the investigated environment. Chernobyl-derived radiocesium was detected solely in the surface layers (2–11 cm) of the studied sample cores. The contribution of the Chernobyl deposits amounted to about 2.26, 6.11 and 20.9 % of the total radiocesium inventory in the bottom sediments, the upland soil and flooded soil, respectively.
ＵＲＬ：http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-014-3026-0
Title: Medical radiological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Russia: estimation of radiation risks.
Author: V. Ivanov, A. Tsyb, S. Ivanov, V. Pokrovsky
Reference: – St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2004. – 388 p.
Keywords:
Abstract: The monograph is devoted to estimation of medical radiological effects of the Chernobyl disaster for emergency workers and the population of Russia.
Based on analysis of the radiation and environmental situation in the contaminated territories and estimates of radiation doses, incidence of cancer diseases among emergency workers and the population due to the postchernobyl exposure has been predicted. For the cohort of emergency workers estimation of radiation risks of non-cancer diseases is also discussed.
Consideration is given to estimates of risks of solid cancers, first-time thyroid cancer and leukemias derived in the radiation epidemiological studies of actual data available in the Russian National Medical and Dosimetric Registry.
The work is intended for environmental scientists, radiation epidemiologists, radiobiologists, specialists in medical radiology and radiation protection.
URL: http://www.nrer.ru/monograf.html
Title: The latent period of induction radiogennyh of solid cancers in a cohort of liquidators
Author: Gorskiy A.I., Kascheev V.V., Tumanov K.A.
Reference: Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, Volume 48, Number 3 / August 2009, pp 247-252
Keywords: emergency workers ,latent period ,solid tumors ,Radiation risk
Abstract: The paper presents results of estimating the latent period of induction of radiogenic solid cancers among Chernobyl emergency workers (males) living in six central regions of Russia. The analysis is based on using medical and dosimetry data gathered by the National Radiation Epidemiological Registry (NRER) over the time period from 1986 to 2005. The cohort size is 59706 persons. These are emergency workers who stayed in the exposure zone in 1986-1987. There were 2562 cases of solid tumors detected during the follow-up time in this cohort. The mean radiation dose is 0.13 Gy. The radiation risk and latent period were estimated using the method of maximum likelihood. The excess relative risk per unit dose was found to be 0.92 (0.28; 1.65 95 % CI) and the minimum latent period of induction of solid tumors is 4.7 years (1.2; 9.4 95 % CI).
URL: http://www.nrer.ru/pub_results.html
Title: The lessons of Chernobyl and Fukushima
Author: Ivanov V.K., Kascheev V.V., Chekin S.YU., Korelo A.M., Menyaylo A.N., Maksyutov M.A., Gorskiy A.I., Tumanov K.A., Pryahin E.A
Reference: J. Radiol. Prot. 2012. V. 32. P. N55-N58
doi:
Keywords: Chernobyl accident , estimation of radiation risks , the 2007 ICRP recommendations prognostic estimates of radiological consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP
Abstract: The following three main questions are considered in the article. First, results of large-scale studies of the National Radiation Epidemiological Registry for 25 years of follow-up after the accident at the Chernobyl NPP and summarized data on radiation risks for emergency accident workers and the population of the most contaminated with radionuclides territories of Russia. Second, verification of ICRP prognostic models (Publication 103) for estimating radiation risk with an allowance for data on the Chernobyl accident. And third, we give prognostic estimates of potential radiological consequences of the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP with the use of the ICRP prognostic models.
URL: http://www.nrer.ru/pub_results.html
Ionizing Radiation and Health: What we all should know today
O.I. Timchenko
Marzeyev Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology, Ukrainian National Academy of Medical Sciences Kiev, Ukraine
Foreword
What lessons should people learn from the Fukushima catastrophe? What message and heritage should be handed to future generations on the nuclear catastrophe?
The post-Fukushima issue is not a simple question of alternatives, such as pro- or anti-nuclear power generation. The catastrophe and post-catastrophe management critically raised a series of questions to rethink modernity, namely, the relationships between science-technology and civilization, science and politics, the natural environment and society, government and citizens, locality and the globe, international society and nation state, culture and spirit, and so on. These questions should be shared by overseas colleagues to look for answers. The most urgent issue is the evacuees in Fukushima, whose number is still, at least, as many as 150 thousand according to the Reconstruction Agency of Japan. The number must be much more, including those who evacuated themselves voluntarily. The full account might be 190-200 thousand or more. Most of the evacuees, having been of large families in their rural homeland, now live separately in small temporary housing in urban or suburban areas with no certain perspective of their destiny, to the old homeland or a new one. Their destiny depends on the number of a so-far totally unknown unit of measurement, the sievert, milli-sievert, or micro-sievert.
A nuclear disaster is a war against an invisible enemy. People, seeing and hearing foreign accounts of the number of sieverts every day in the media, still remain almost illiterate about it, though having full information. Information must develop into knowledge.
Twenty-five years before the Fukushima accident, the Chernobyl disaster happened in the Soviet Union. Almost all Japanese were severely shocked at that time; however, as time passed, they forgot it. Focus on the catastrophe turned to other business. As a result, the people learnt no lessons from it. In the Chernobyl region, however, the people have been facing post-disaster aftereffects and radiation exposure all the time since the accident. Meanwhile, the SU collapsed, and the affected people’s destiny altered according to their new national belonging, that is, Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine.
The Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University recently launched a joint research project “Catastrophe and Rebirth of Regions after Disasters: Chernobyl, Ajka, and Fukushima,” and the aim of the project is to draw lessons from the disasters for the rest of the world and the future generations to fight an invisible enemy. This booklet is the first joint product for the public between scholars in Ukraine and Japan answering practical questions in an era of nuclear civil protection from an invisible enemy: exposure to radiation.
The author of this booklet is Olga I. Timchenko, senior researcher at the Marzeyev Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology, attached to the Ukrainian National Academy of Medical Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine. Her details are in the first pages of the contents.
Here, I provide a brief history of the booklet. In March 2013, I visited several research institutions of radiology in Kiev. The aim of the visit was to have a complex bird’s eye view on Chernobyl studies in Ukraine, and to pass the experience and knowledge to the Japanese, especially to the people affected by the Fukushima accident. Olga plays a leading role in the researches on the influence of radioactivity on the ecology at the Marzeyev Institute. She was the key person among those whom I met there, and I asked her to write a guideline essay on low-level exposure to radiation. Olga accepted it, saying, “With pleasure. The Ukrainian people are grateful to the Japanese people who helped the Ukrainian children. Now, it is the time for us to reciprocate.”
The booklet is full of experience and knowledge of the Ukrainian people, living a quarter of century after the nuclear catastrophe. It is indispensable for us. However, we have to develop their knowledge further on the basis of our own local experiences, because individual peoples and lands have their own physical and mental characteristics. As Olga writes, for example, balanced nutrition is essential to prevent the effects of radioactive doses. Then, we have to take into consideration the fact that diet differs greatly from nation to nation, or from area to area, and it can chronologically change within a nation or an area. The old Japanese diet of seafood is declining among the younger generation. This booklet, in any case, serves as a basic guideline to develop literacy against radioactive exposure.
I hereby express my deepest gratitude to Olga I. Timchenko. I extend my gratitude to Masumi Takaragawa, who is in charge of Chernobyl affairs at the Japan Embassy in Kiev, for her kind arrangement of my visit to Kiev in March 2013. Without her help, my stay in Kiev would not have been successful. Her family’s hospitality is unforgettable with Georgian cuisine, prepared by Uta, her husband.
Special thanks go to Tetsuji Imanaka, the Research Reactor Institute at Kyoto University, and David Wolff, the Slavic Research Center at Hokkaido University, for their many valuable comments on the Japanese/English translation of the original paper, written in Russian. The translation into Japanese and English from the Russian texts was conducted by Takashi Ieda, who otherwise helped me as an interpreter in Ukraine in March. All he did for this booklet was totally voluntary.
I, who supervised the translations, assume all responsibility, however. Any critical comments and suggestions are welcome.
I do hope that the booklet will help develop radioactive literacy everywhere in the world to fight the invisible enemy successfully.
Professor Osamu Ieda The Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University
Title: Evolution of radiocaesium contamination in mushrooms and influence of treatment after collection
Author: O. Daillant, D. Boilley, M. Josset, B. Hettwig, H. W. Fischer
Reference: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry September 2013, Volume 297, Issue 3, pp 437-441
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-012-2411-9
Keywords: radiocaesium, contamination, mushrooms, preparation
Abstract: In literature quite a lot of data is available on uptake of radioactive caesium in mushrooms. There is less available on the evolution of concentration in fruitbodies after several years and on “outbound” transfer of radiocaesium from fruitbodies to their direct environment, i.e. dilution according to cooking techniques. The recent event at Fukushima has put the question of radionuclides in food, and the following exposure of consumers, high on the agenda. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) in order to investigate the variation in time of caesium uptake by fungi, analyses of the same species having grown on the same spot at different intervals during the last 25 years have been performed and (2) in terms of radiation protection the most important thing is the activity taken in by the consumer and not the contamination of raw products. Preparation can have a great impact on activity concentration. Various species of mushrooms frequently eaten have been sampled in Europe and contaminated areas in Japan. Different preparation techniques that can break the walls of the hyphae (drying, deepfreezing etc.) have been applied as well as different treatments: boiling or macerating in water with salt, in acid and basic media. The pH of different media was adjusted and measured. The samples and the medium were analysed separately in gamma spectrometry.
ＵＲＬ：http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-012-2411-9
Title: Current radioactivity content of wild edible mushrooms: A candidate for an environmental reference material
Author: Zs. Szántó, M. Hult, U. Wätjen, T. Altzitzoglou
Reference: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry July 2007, Volume 273, Issue 1, pp 167-170
DOI: 10.1007/s10967-007-0730-z
Keywords: wild mushroom, Europe
Abstract: The paper presents the results of radiological investigation of several mushroom samples collected in the fall of 2004 in different parts of Europe. The work was performed in order to support decision making to develop and produce a certified reference material for quality assurance of radionuclide measurements in environmental samples. The levels of 137Cs in mushrooms varied widely ranging from 0.6 to 4300 Bq/kg on dry mass basis, while those of natural 40K were relatively constant. In one sample 60Co of unknown origin was detected (25±2 Bq/kg dry mass), while 90Sr concentrations were usually below the detection limit (<150 mBq/kg dry mass).
URL:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10967-007-0730-z
