Radiological accidents occur mainly in the practices recognized as high risk and which are classified by the IAEA as Categories 1 and 2: radiotherapy, industrial irradiators and industrial radiography. In Brazil, 5 important cases in industrial gamma radiography occurred from 1985 to 2018, involving 7 radiation workers and 19 members of the public. The accidents caused localized radiation lesions on the hands and fingers. One of these accidents is the focus of this paper. In this accident, a 3.28 TBq 192Ir radioactive source was left unshielded for 9 hours in a NDT company parking lot, and many radiation workers, employees and public, including teachers of a primary school were exposed. The radioactive source was also directly handled by a security worker for about 1.5 min causing severe radiation injuries in the hand and fingers. This paper presents radiation dose estimates for all accidentally exposed individuals. Four scenarios were considered, and three internationally recognised and updated reconstructive dosimetry techniques were used, named, Brazilian Visual Monte Carlo Dose Calculation (VMC), Virtual Environment for Radiological and Nuclear Accidents Simulation (AVSAR) and RADPRO Calculator®. The main radiation doses estimated by VMC were the absorbed dose of 34 Gy for the security worker’s finger and his effective dose of 91 mSv; effective doses from 43 to 160 mSv for radiation workers and NDT employees; and effective doses of 9 mSv for teachers in the schoolyard.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.