The early internationalization of safety culture: The impact of Yugoslavia`s Vinca reactor accident of 1958
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
The radiation exposure accident in October 1958 at the experimental zero-power reactor of the Boris Kidric Institute in Vinca, Yugoslavia, presented one of the first opportunities for the newly-created International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to oversee multinational cooperation in radiological safety analysis and dose reconstruction. IAEA involvement developed from initiatives by the U.S. State Department and U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in the post-accident period, including an offer by U.S. AEC to exchange U.S. radiation exposure case histories for information on the doses received by and the bioeffects exhibited by the technicians exposed during the Vinca incident. U.S. intelligence sources estimated that the dose equivalents received ranged between 6-8 Sv; official Yugoslavian estimates put the average dose equivalent at 6.8 Sv. Through an agreement between the Yugoslav Federal Nuclear Commission and IAEA, U.S. AEC`s Oak Ridge Health Physics Division personnel were given access to the Vinca reactor in early 1960. A gamma and neutron dose reconstruction experiment, featuring anthropomorphic phantoms with approximately tissue-equivalent liquid and an array of internal detectors for neutron dose measurements, was conducted at the Kidric Institute. The reconstruction project`s dose calculations were compared with the estimates developed by French scientists based upon clinical observation of the Vinca technicians. This dose reconstruction study was evaluated simultaneously with studies of the June 1958 Y-12 accident and the January 1960 SLA accident. Studies of these incidents provoked an intensive U.S. AEC re-evaluation of reactor safety engineering and operations which had important ramifications for IAEA`s international standards for operational safety and radiological risk assessment.
- OSTI ID:
- 393948
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9607135--
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics, Journal Name: Health Physics Journal Issue: Suppl.6 Vol. 70; ISSN HLTPAO; ISSN 0017-9078
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
DOSE EQUIVALENTS
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
IAEA AGREEMENTS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
PHANTOMS
RADIATION ACCIDENTS
RADIATION DOSES
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR OPERATORS
RISK ASSESSMENT
Y-12 PLANT
YUGOSLAVIA
ZERO POWER REACTORS