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Medical physics is a dynamic and constantly growing field of applied physics mainly directed towards the applications of physics principles to health care. Among the technological novations there is the optimization of image quality for magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound diagnostics, and computer tomography; development and use of high energy linear accelerators with sophisticated options for dose delivery; computerized treatment planning systems, record and verification systems; overall integration of computers into the routine clinical work. The key role of the me dical physicist is widely recognized to ensure the safe and effective use of modern equipment for medical exposure. Medical physicists are involved in four basic activities: clinical service, research, and development, teaching, and management/ administration. In addition, they should be familiar with the safety culture and promote this principle among the medical staff for the improvement of radiation safety, setting an example by their behaviour. This is no the best practice for the certification of medical physicists in international experience. The paper presents an attempt to analyse international standards and propose recommendations for the implementation of medical physicist’ certification in Ukraine. According to the authors, this will strongly influence on nation’s health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activity concentrations of 90Sr in fish in lakes located within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (ChEZ) reach 100 kBq kg−1, which is several thousand times higher than the permissible level in Ukraine (35 Bq kg−1). This study was conducted in the natural conditions of the ChEZ to determine the effectiveness of keeping radioactively contaminated fish in "clean" water to reduce the 90Sr content of their muscle tissue, as previously shown in short-term laboratory experiments. It was found that transferring tench (Tinca tinca (Linnaeus, 1758)) from Lake Glubokoye one of the most contaminated lakes in the ChEZ, to a cage in the "clean" Lake Starukha for 45 days did not lead to a significant decrease in 90Sr content in both bone and muscle tissues. Establishing permissible levels of 90Sr concentration only in fish fillet, and not in the whole fish body (with bone tissue), is appropriate for human radiation protection, since the retention factors of 90Sr treatment for boiled bone tissue of crucian carp from the Chornobyl exclusion zone are less than 0.01, and up to 97% of strontium is contained in bone tissue. [Display omitted] • No reduce of 90Sr content in contaminated fish when kept in "clean" water for 45 days. • Less than 1% of 90Sr is transferred to broth during boiling of fish bone tissue. • Current Ukrainian permissible levels of 90Sr in fish products need to be revised. • Long-term experiments are needed to study ways to remove 90Sr from fish tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1990 till 2011, a free health care program for children from areas affected by the Chernobyl accident was organized and implemented by the Cuban Government. A significant number of qualified personal in medicine and science collaborated with this program. The information gathered for more than 21 years and the conclusive results obtained in the program are presented here. During this time, 26 114 patients, 84 % children, mostly from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus were treated in the mentioned program. Other aspects of the Cuban medical assistance in Ukraine and the main results obtained in the radiological impact evaluation of the accident on the children treated in Cuba are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microscopic fuel fragments, so-called "hot particles", were released during the 1986 accident at the Chornobyl nuclear powerplant and continue to contaminate the exclusion zone in northern Ukraine. Isotopic analysis can provide vital information about sample origin, history and contamination of the environment, though it has been underutilized due to the destructive nature of most mass spectrometric techniques, and inability to remove isobaric interference. Recent developments have diversified the range of elements that can be investigated through resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS), notably in the fission products. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the application of multi-element analysis on hot particles as relates to their burnup, particle formation in the accident, and weathering. The particles were analysed with two RIMS instruments: resonant-laser secondary neutral mass spectrometry (rL-SNMS) at the Institute for Radiation Protection and Radioecology (IRS) in Hannover, Germany, and laser ionization of neutrals (LION) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, USA. Comparable results across instruments show a range of burnup dependent isotope ratios for U and Pu and Cs, characteristic of RBMK-type reactors. Results for Rb, Ba and Sr show the influence of the environment, retention of Cs in the particles and time passed since fuel discharge. [Display omitted] • The advantages of resonance ionization mass spectrometry for nearly non-destructive micro analysis of isotope ratios. • Considering the effects of nuclear reactions and particle formation in the accident on the resulting isotope ratios. • Assessing the origin of particles, time since release from the reactor, and retention of elements in the particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl a number of different remedial actions were developed and implemented in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Recommendations on the application of countermeasures and remedial actions were published by the IAEA as “Guidelines for agricultural countermeasures following an accidental release of radionuclides” in 1994. Since then, new information on the behaviour of radionuclides in the environment and effectiveness of countermeasures in the long term has been obtained and reviewed by many projects, including the Chernobyl Forum. Additionally, new approaches to derive remediation strategies were developed and successfully implemented in the most affected countries. This paper describes a justification of the remediation strategies suggested for rehabilitation of the areas most affected by the Chernobyl accident based on this experience. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards. Certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned with what can be measured in practice under the existing socioeconomic and technoscientific conditions. Conversely, better aligning formal representations and measurement capabilities helps reveal the scope of such hazards. Such (mis)alignment of formal representations is a relative, dialogical, and historically specific process. It requires not only experts and their specialized knowledge, but also contextual knowledge of the actual local conditions. The work of alignment of formal representations requires public ‘un-black-boxing’ of these formalisms. It also depends on much infrastructural work, which I describe as the invisible work of making visible. (Mis)alignment of formal representations is illustrated here with the examples of three successive concepts of radiation protection in Belarus, a former Soviet Union republic that was covered with much of the Chernobyl fallout. Revisions to the radiation protection concept first expanded and then dramatically shrank the scope of the officially recognized and publicly visible radioactive contamination in Belarus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The full text of the book reviews is given in the PDF file. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tens of thousands of Chernobyl children (mostly from Belarus) annually leave to receive treatment and health care in other countries. Doctors from many countries gratuitously work in the Chernobyl contaminated territories, helping to minimize the consequences of this most terrible technologic catastrophe in history. But the scale and spectrum of the consequences are so high, that no country in the world can cope alone with the long-term consequences of such a catastrophe as Chernobyl. The countries that have suffered the most, especially Ukraine and Belarus, extend gratitude for the help that has come through the United Nations and other international organizations, as well as from private funds and initiatives. Twenty-two years after the Chernobyl releases, the annual individual dose limit in heavily contaminated territories of Belarus, Ukraine, and European Russia exceed 1 mSv/year just because of the unavoidable consumption of locally contaminated products. The 11-year experience of the BELRAD Institute shows that for effective radiation protection it is necessary to establish the interference level for children at 30% of the official dangerous limit (i.e., 15–20 Bq/kg). The direct whole body counting measurements of Cs-137 accumulation in the bodies of inhabitants of the heavily contaminated Belarussian region shows that the official Dose Catalogue underestimates the annual dose burdens by three to eight times. For practical reasons the curative-like use of apple-pectin food additives might be especially helpful for effective decorporation of Cs-137. From 1996 to 2007 a total of more than 160,000 Belarussian children received pectin food additives during 18 to 25 days of treatment (5 g twice a day). As a result, levels of Cs-137 in children's organs decreased after each course of pectin additives by an average of 30 to 40%. Manufacture and application of various pectin-based food additives and drinks (using apples, currants, grapes, sea seaweed, etc.) is one of the most effective ways for individual radioprotection (through decorporation) under circumstances where consumption of radioactively contaminated food is unavoidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Urban Remediation Working Group of the International Atomic Energy Agency''s EMRAS (Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety) program was organized to address issues of remediation assessment modelling for urban areas contaminated with dispersed radionuclides. The present paper describes the first of two modelling exercises, which was based on Chernobyl fallout data in the town of Pripyat, Ukraine. Modelling endpoints for the exercise included radionuclide concentrations and external dose rates at specified locations, contributions to the dose rates from individual surfaces and radionuclides, and annual and cumulative external doses to specified reference individuals. Model predictions were performed for a “no action” situation (with no remedial measures) and for selected countermeasures. The exercise provided a valuable opportunity to compare modelling approaches and parameter values, as well as to compare the predicted effectiveness of various countermeasures with respect to short-term and long-term reduction of predicted doses to people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article the author discusses aspects of the nuclear accident and radiation exposure at Chernobyl, Ukraine and Fukushima, Japan. He also discusses concerns for human health based on As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) which is out of balance noting on the primary threat that comes not from health or radiation but from fear and uncertainty. He asserts that better public education and realistic safety standards are needed.

The implementation and calibration of two whole body counters for determination of Cs-137 body activity in children is described. The results of measurements of 4506 children coming from affected areas due to Chernobyl accident from Republics of Ukrainian, Russian and Belaruss, and who received medical atention in Cuba is presented. Instalations, equipment and calibration phantoms used are described. The values of measured activity is relationed with the place of origin groups of age and the form of feeding. The measured activity values range from 1,5 to 565 Bq/kg, and have a log-normal character for each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses massive forest fires in Russia during the summer of 2010 and fears of the generation of radioactive smoke if the fires spread to Ukraine and woodlands contaminated by the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear accident. Sustainable forestry expert Chadwick Oliver is cited regarding his belief that a conflagration within the Chornobyl forest is likely regardless of the particular source.

The safety culture of any organisation plays a critical role in setting the tone for both effective delivery of service and high standards of performance. By embedding safety at a cultural level, organisations are able to influence the attitudes and behaviours of stakeholders. To achieve this requires the ongoing commitment of heads of organisations and also individuals to prioritise safety no less than other competing goals (e.g. in universities, recruitment and retention are key) to ensure the protection of both people and the environment.The concept of culture is the same whatever the sector, e.g. medical, nuclear, industry, education, and research, but the higher education and research sectors within the UK are a unique challenge in developing a strong safety culture.This report provides an overview of the challenges presented by the sector, the current status of radiation protection culture, case studies to demonstrate good and bad practice in the sector and the practical methods to influence change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses the potential long-term impact of Japanese nuclear crisis in which he regards as Chernobyl, Ukraine accident's reflection. He states that although the contamination's extent in Fukushima, Japan is not yet defined, the long-term effects are to be determined by caesium-137. He says that caesium-137 contaminated Fukushima in a wide range. Meanwhile, the Chernobyl event taught the people the essence of psychological and social actions to cope with radiation.

Comments on the implications of the Chornobyl nuclear plant accident in Ukraine. Effect on environmental health; Extraction of lessons on radiation protection; Establishment of a health protection zone by Soviet regulations.