Kramatorsk nuclear accident

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House 7, Hvardiiv Kantemyrivtsiv Street, Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
Cesium-137 radiation source

The Kramatorsk nuclear accident occurred between 1980 and 1989 in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Oblast of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic .

In 1989 a capsule with highly radioactive cesium-137 was found in the concrete wall of a residential building . The radiation source emitted a significant dose of gamma radiation of 1800  roentgen per year.

Origin of the capsule

At the end of the 1970s, the source of ionizing radiation of the type IGI-C-4 - capsule with cesium-137 in the activity Bq , i.e. 1.4 Ci , was lost in the Karansk quarry in Donetsk Oblast . The capsule was used in the company's measuring device (radioisotope level meter) in the manufacture of crushed stone. The capsule could not be found. A commission of inquiry later found that the search was poorly organized. The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) sees the poor level of safety in the facility as the main cause of the incident.

consequences

During the 9 years, 2 families lived in the apartment. By the time the capsule was found, 6 apartment residents had already died of leukemia and 17 had received radiation doses of different levels. In the summer of 1981, an 18-year-old girl died in one of the apartments. The following year her 16-year-old brother died, then the mother. Another family moved into the apartment and their teenage son died in 1987. The younger son became seriously ill. All victims died of leukemia. The doctors could not determine the cause of the disease and attributed the disease to a hereditary disposition.

Find and remove

The father of the second family asked the medical and epidemiological service to check the radiation exposure in the apartment. The study found dangerous radiation levels, especially in the children's room, in the wall of the adjoining apartment and in the apartment above. The residents had to leave the two apartments. The radiation source was located inside the partition wall of the apartments. No diffusion of radioactive material in the form of dust was found. Part of the wall was cut out and taken to the Kiev Institute for Nuclear Research, where a capsule containing cesium-137 was found. The manufacturer of the capsule was identified by its serial number. After removing the source, the radiation exposure in house no.7 corresponded to the natural background radiation.

The accident happened on Hwardijziw-Kantemyriwziw-Straße ( Вул. Гвардійців Кантемирівців ), house 7, apartment 85, between apartment 85 and 52.

Coordinates: 48 ° 44 ′ 3 ″  N , 37 ° 36 ′ 22 ″  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gusev, Igor, Guskova, Angelina, & Mettler, Fred A. (Eds.). (2001). Medical management of radiation accidents. CRC Press.
  2. ↑ Stadnik LL, Romanova IN, Kovalevskaya L. Н. Methodological peculiarities in the reconstruction of doses for the population of Kramatorsk affected by communal radiation // Proceedings of the International Symposium: Current Dosimetry Problems Minsk, October 27-29, 1999. - Minsk, 1999. - p. 130.
  3. ↑ Chernobyl in the wall of the panel house on vp.donetsk.ua from May 28, 2003; accessed on June 30, 2019 (Russian)
  4. ^ Early Medical Consequences of Radiation Incidents in the Former URRS Territory. Retrieved February 6, 2015 .