5/24/2023 0 Comments Radiation island walkthroughBecause the persons affected in some cases were not aware that a radiological release from the TMI facility had occurred following an accident, and in most or all cases may not have been knowledgeable regarding the medical impacts of radiation poisoning, a diagnosis of mental distress as an explanation for the acute effects observed is difficult to accept.įurthermore, large-scale epidemiological investigations have uncovered health decrements including breast and lung cancer, heart disease, and early mortality among the exposed population within ten miles 7 and five miles 8, 9, 10 of the TMI facility. Researchers later correlated more than a dozen verified reports of medical impacts to simultaneous meteorological conditions at the TMI facility 6, at least suggesting the presence of the radioactive plume at the location of the individuals making the reports. For instance, contemporaneous accounts from hundreds of local residents describe symptoms consistent with significant exposure to ionizing radiation, including erythema, hair loss, nausea, and vomiting 5. However, contrary evidence does exist, and ought not to be summarily dismissed. On the basis of what is known about the accident and the nature of the exposure suffered by those nearby, it is therefore not conventionally believed that any discernible impact to human health caused by exposure to ionizing radiation has been observed 2, 3, 4. The Report of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (known as the Kemeny Commission Report, after its chairman) asserted that any health or medical impacts affecting the population living within twenty miles of the accident site were due to mental distress 1. Although it is well-established that gamma ray exposures to the affected population were comparable to or smaller than the annual dose due to background radiation (around 1 mSv), the topic of health effects relating to the accident has always been controversial. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power station in Pennsylvania released a large quantity of the radioactive noble gas xenon-133 into the surrounding environment. The finding should motivate a comprehensive re-evaluation of the conventional understanding of the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station, especially regarding its impact upon the population of the surrounding area. Shot noise reference doses in the range from 820 to 1,700 mSv follow, a result which is consistent with biodosimetric analysis. The Xe-133 concentration in the tissue of those individuals exposed to the most intense portion of the radioactive plume released from the TMI facility is shown to have been on the order of 0.1 μCi/l, persisting for multiple hours. Application of a century-old result describing “shot noise” in an electronic system repairs the deficiency. The paradox reveals a fundamental error in the health physics body of knowledge: the definition of the energy imparted to tissue, ε, fails to properly account for the temporal distribution of ionization products resulting from dilute contamination with an internally incorporated beta-emitting radionuclide. This report examines the discrepancy between the results of physical dosimetry and biodosimetry, which among the small number of persons examined indicated exposures between 600 and 900 mSv. ![]() However, there is contrary evidence, including especially the results of biodosimetry via cytogenetic analysis using the FISH method. ![]() Because physical dosimetry indicated exposures to the nearby population of less than about 2 mSv, discernible impacts to the health of the exposed population are not generally believed to have resulted. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania released about 22 million Curies of xenon-133 into the environment.
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