Nuclear Accidents and

Radiation Hazards
H.S. VIRK
Professor Emeritus
Eternal University, Baru Sahib,
Himachal Pradesh, India

Historical Background
Nuclear fission was discovered by Otto Hahn,
Strassman and Lise Mietner in 1938 in Germany,
when they bombarded uranium with neutrons.
Enrico Fermi demonstrated the chain reaction in a
nuclear pile (reactor) on 2nd December 1942 in
Chicago (USA) which led to the making of first
Nuclear Bomb (Atomic Bomb) under the Manhattan
Project at Los Alamos in the desert of New Mexico
(USA). Two thousand million dollars was the budget
estimate for Manhattan Project. The test explosion
of Atomic Bomb on 16th July 1945 was a complete
success.

Nuclear Bomb Explosion

Demonstration of Nuclear Disaster

The test explosion of Atomic Bomb on 16th July
1945 was a complete success. The First Atomic
Bomb was thrown / dropped on Hiroshima on
6th August 1945 and the second on Nagasaki on
9th August 1945. The bomb had the power of
20,000 tons of TNT. Hiroshima nuclear explosion
killed 92,133 Japanese and more than 100,000
were permanently injured and disfigured. The
disaster was worst in the recorded history of
mankind.

Japanese Radiation Victim

Public Reaction in the Press

The following lines appeared in an
American
newspaper
after
the
demonstration of Nuclear Hazard:
The Atom Bomb is here to stay,
Most scientists agree.
Oh, the bomb is here to stay,
The question is, are we?

Manhattan Project
Beginning with the Manhattan Project, during the
World War II, USA created a vast arsenal of nuclear
weapons based on plutonium. The inputs came
from a number of nuclear complexes spread across
the country and they included a number of nuclear
reactors to produce plutonium, reprocessing plants
to
extract
plutonium
and
weapon-research
laboratories and production plants. As an example,
at Hanford (Washington State), a typical nuclear
weapons complex, there were 9 nuclear reactors
producing plutonium, 5 reprocessing plants and 200
tanks storing nearly 200,000 m3 of high level
radioactive waste.

Nuclear Arsenal in USA

Nearly a thousand weapons were detonated by USA
for testing and the arsenal comprised of tens of
thousands of weapons. The leftovers from this cold
war legacy are believed to contain several large
highly-contaminated reprocessing plants, thousands
of tons of irradiated fuel in basins that act as
radioactive dustbins, hundreds of underground
tanks each containing hundreds of thousands of
cubic metres of high-level radioactive waste in
hazardous state, dozens of tons of unsecured
plutonium and so on.

Nuclear Scenario in Russia

Reports from the European press state that the
erstwhile Soviet Union secretly dumped nuclear
reactors and radioactive waste into the bordering
seas, indicating more damaging nuclear legacy of
the Cold War than previously known. It is said that
nuclear reactors from at least 18 nuclear submarines
and icebreakers were dumped in the Barents Sea.
The Russians are reported to have dumped
unprocessed nuclear waste into The Sea of Japan.
The latest in this scenario is that on 12 August 2000,
the giant Russian nuclear submarine Kursk, carrying
a crew of 118, sank in the icy waters of the Barents
Sea after what Russian officials described as a
catastrophe that developed at lightning speed.

Problem of Radioactive Waste

It may not be wrong to guess that any other
weapon-producing complex in any other
country also operates in a similar manner.
Only the scale of operation may be large or
small depending on the resources that are
pumped in. The secrecy, callousness in
handling the radioactive waste and the
problems that each nation faces would be
qualitatively no different; quantitatively they
increase as weaponization takes deeper
roots.

Nuclear Reactor Accidents

Minor Reactor accidents were reported in
Calder Hall, UK and Three Mile Long
Island, USA.
The most dreadful nuclear reactor
accidents have occurred at Chernobyl on
26 April, 1986, and more recently at
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in
Japan, after it was hit by Tsunami on
March 11, 2011.

 Reactor accidents and nuclear explosions

have created a media-hype and a nuclear
neurosis among the general public to veto
setting up of any nuclear facility, even in
remote areas. Public awareness of
environmental and nuclear radiation
hazards is an area which is most
neglected in India. A typical case study is
the uranium poisoning of ground water in
Punjab, where contradictory reports have
been published about cancer deaths
during last 3 years (2009-11).

Indo-Pak Nuclear Scenario

Zia Mian et al.(Currernt Science,2001)
have reported the estimated risk and health
hazard effects of nuclear warheads
deployment in South Asia, with particular
reference to India and Pakistan.
Considering the political situation in the
sub-continent, the authors assume that the
dangerous situation may change for the
worst in the not-too-distant future on the
deployment of nuclear weapons.

 Both India and Pakistan have developed a

variety of ballistic missiles for carrying nuclear
weapons. These missiles are propelled by
highly volatile hypergolic liquid propellants and
hence the risk of deployment is always there
even when there is no nuclear warfare. Using
the famous wedge model for estimating the
effects of a nuclear weapon accident, the
authors calculate the number of deaths due to
cancer caused by dispersal of plutonium from
the nuclear weapons. Any serious accident
caused by detonation of propellant/fuel can
convert the fissile material of nuclear warhead
into aerosol particles which will disperse into
the environment.

Probability of Cancer Deaths

There is also a possibility that detonation of a
highly explosive propellant/fuel in the pit may
trigger in turn the detonation of the nuclear
weapon. Such an explosion might be mistaken
for a nuclear attack and lead to a nuclear
response. Thus there is always a danger that an
accidental nuclear explosion may even trigger a
nuclear warfare. The dispersal of plutonium
aerosols, even without nuclear warfare, may
cause 5000 cancer deaths in a metropolitan like
Delhi. One can imagine the situation in Punjab!

What is the Solution?

Considering all the facts and figures in this
study, the scientists and political leaders of both
India and Pakistan must enter into a dialogue for
safe deployment of nuclear weapons. The best
solution will be to store them far away from
missiles carrying potentially explosive fuel. To
reduce the risk of a nuclear weapon being
launched through error, panic or miscalculation,
it is advisable to keep the nuclear weapons
disassembled.

Sources of Environmental
Radiation
The sources of environmental radiation
are both natural and artificial; the bulk of
average annual effective dose (2.4 mSv)
being contributed by the natural sources
of radiation including radon (52.5%) and
cosmic rays (16.2%).
Artificial sources include Radioisotopes,
Accelerators, Nuclear Reactors and
Atomic Bomb Explosions.

Nuclear Radiation as a Boon

Recent
studies
have
established
that
environmental radiation has been a boon for
mankind. The creation of universe with a BigBang was responsible for environmental cosmic
radiation about 20 billion years ago. Evolution of
life leading to human species had been possible
due to radiation exposure. Beneficial health
effects of low-level radiation are well-established
by some workers (S. Kondo in Japan, 1993 Wei
et al. in China, 1990).

Radiation as a Tonic
Health-stimulating effects of natural radon were
known to Europeans and the radon spas were
used for treatment of patients in Romania,
Austria, Hungary, Germany and Russia, more
than a century ago. Radium-rich water was used
as a tonic. Most of the thermal springs are rich
source of radon and have been pilgrimage
centres in India, for example, the Manikaran
spring is also believed to have miraculous
healing powers.

 The radon spas were used for treatment of

patients in Austria, Romania, Hungary, Russia
and Japan. Treatments at the radon sauna and
spas have been reported to be effective for
rheumatoid arthritis, spondylosis, neuritis and
complications of endocrine and sex harmone
systems. Radon spas of Badgastein in Austria,
Misasa in Japan, Boulder in USA, Matradrescke
in Hungary and Manikaran in India have been
used in curing rheumatoid arthritis and other
related diseases. Radon spa near Moscow was
used for the health recovery of Russian army
generals and Politburo members. Radium-rich
water was used as a tonic in Europe.

Thank You !!!