Radiation-induced thyroid cancer: what we know and what we really understand

Паршков, Е. М.; Sokolov, V. A.; Цыб, А Ф; Прошин, А. Д.; Barnes, Justin

doi:10.1504/ijlr.2004.005425

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…According to the regulations of the Belarusian Ministry of Health, the thyroids of all people who were younger than 18 in 1986 and those of each inhabitant of contaminated areas must be diagnosed every year (Parshkov et al 2004). More than 90 percent of children in contaminated areas are now examined for thyroid cancers every year with ultrasonography and other methods.…”

Section: Petr Pavlicek/iaeamentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese Nuclear Power and the Wrath of Nature

Jaworowski¹

2012

Energy & Environment

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Japan, perched on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," is one of the most seismically unstable countries. In the 20 th Century, about 158,280 persons died there in nine major earthquakes, with Richter magnitude 6 and above. The Japanese had that in mind when building 55 nuclear reactors for 17 nuclear power plants, which supply the country with 34.5% of its electricity. They made them sturdy enough not to release any dangerous radioactivity outside the plant limits, even due to the worst earthquakes. The quake of March 11 2011, of magnitude 9.0, the greatest in the Japan history, proved that the plants operated almost as expected. No dangerous radioactivity was reported to escape from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plants into the environment outside the plants' limits, and nobody was seriously harmed by radiation among the public. However, even though the power plants evidently withstood the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, they appeared to be sensitive to the enormous tsunami, with the waves up to 7 meters high, which flooded their emergency diesel power generators, intended to provide backup power for the pumps that cooled the reactor core. This was evidently an effect of the poor original design of the 40-year-old power plant, as the generators were located just behind a sea wall on low-lying coastal ground. The tsunami overwhelmed the 6-meter high barrier. The result was an overheating of the cores of the reactors. Like Chernobyl 25 years ago, Fukushima now brings important lessons for the only 56-years-old nuclear power. In the heavily affected prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki, there are 11 nuclear power reactors. Those which operated during the earthquake were automatically shut down when tremors started, and the crews started standard procedures of cooling the "residual heat," i.e., pumping the water to the pressure vessels of the reactors. However, after an hour, the emergency power generators at Fukushima Daiichi plant were destroyed by the tsunami; the high pressure emergency cooling was lost, and before the mobile generators were supplied, the temperature of the core in the Unit 1 reactor increased to a level where the zirconium cladding of the fuel rods reacted with water, producing hydrogen gas. When the gas was released from * Zbigniew Jaworowski was a multidisciplinary scientist who has published more than 300 scientific papers, four books, and scores of popular science articles. He has been a member of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)since 1973, and served as its chairman from 1980-1982. His recent article , "Observations on Chernobyl After 25 Years of Radiophobia" is available here: www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2010/Summer_2010/Observations_ Chernobyl.pdf Zbigniew Jaworowski died on the 12 of November 2011 in Poland at the age of 84.

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Section: Petr Pavlicek/iaeamentioning

confidence: 99%

Japanese Nuclear Power and the Wrath of Nature

Jaworowski¹

2012

Energy & Environment

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“…According to the regulations of the Belarusian Ministry of Health the thyroids of all people who were younger than 18 in 1986 and those of each inhabitant of "contaminated areas" must be diagnosed every year (Parshkov et al 2004). More than 90% of children in contaminated areas are now diagnosed for thyroid cancers every year with ultrasonography (USG) and other methods.…”

Section: Effects Of Chernobyl Fallout On the Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations on the Chernobyl Disaster and LNT

Jaworowski¹

2010

Dose-Response

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The Chernobyl accident was probably the worst possible catastrophe of a nuclear power station. It was the only such catastrophe since the advent of nuclear power 55 years ago. It resulted in a total meltdown of the reactor core, a vast emission of radionuclides, and early deaths of only 31 persons. Its enormous political, economic, social and psychological impact was mainly due to deeply rooted fear of radiation induced by the linear non-threshold hypothesis (LNT) assumption. It was a historic event that provided invaluable lessons for nuclear industry and risk philosophy. One of them is demonstration that counted per electricity units produced, early Chernobyl fatalities amounted to 0.86 death/GWe-year), and they were 47 times lower than from hydroelectric stations ( approximately 40 deaths/GWe-year). The accident demonstrated that using the LNT assumption as a basis for protection measures and radiation dose limitations was counterproductive, and lead to sufferings and pauperization of millions of inhabitants of contaminated areas. The projections of thousands of late cancer deaths based on LNT, are in conflict with observations that in comparison with general population of Russia, a 15% to 30% deficit of solid cancer mortality was found among the Russian emergency workers, and a 5% deficit solid cancer incidence among the population of most contaminated areas.

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“…The scope, intensity, and precision of the screening were possible due to the use of modern diagnostic equipment and techniques provided by Western countries. According to the government-introduced regulations, all individuals, who in 1986 were below 18 years old and each inhabitant of the contaminated regions of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, and later the independent Republic of Belarus, must be diagnosed every year for thyroid malignancy [ 55 ]. Execution of the top-down decisions was facilitated by the increased access to health care associated with the enhanced awareness of the risk among the relevant populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thyroid Cancer in Regions Most Contaminated after the Chernobyl Disaster

2024

J Biomed Phys Eng

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Exposure to ionizing radiation, especially during childhood, is a well-established risk factor for thyroid cancer. Following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident the total number of cases of thyroid cancer registered between 1991 and 2015 in males and females who were less than 18 years old exceeded 19,000 (in Belarus and Ukraine, and in the most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation). However, as indicated by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the fraction of the incidence of thyroid cancer attributable to radiation exposure among the non-evacuated residents of the contaminated regions of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia is of the order of 0.25. Apparently, the increased registration of thyroid neoplasms in the parts of these countries is a classical 'screening effect', i.e., massive diagnostic examinations of the risk-aware populations performed with modern eqipment resulting in detection of many occult neoplasms (incidentalomas). Moreover, one type of thyroid cancer previously called 'encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma' is non-invasive and instead of 'carcinoma' should now be recognized as 'noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features.' Other potential causes of overdiagnosing of thyroid tumors include increase of the spontaneous incidence rate of this disease with age, iodine deficiency among children from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, and/or consumption by these children of drinking water containing high levels of nitrates that likely coincides with the carcinogenic effect of radiation on the thyroid gland.

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Radiation-induced thyroid cancer: what we know and what we really understand

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Japanese Nuclear Power and the Wrath of Nature

Japanese Nuclear Power and the Wrath of Nature

Observations on the Chernobyl Disaster and LNT

Thyroid Cancer in Regions Most Contaminated after the Chernobyl Disaster

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