JOURNAL DESCRIPTION
The Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety journal ISSN 1024-6177 was founded in January 1956 (before December 30, 1993 it was entitled Medical Radiology, ISSN 0025-8334). In 2018, the journal received Online ISSN: 2618-9615 and was registered as an electronic online publication in Roskomnadzor on March 29, 2018. It publishes original research articles which cover questions of radiobiology, radiation medicine, radiation safety, radiation therapy, nuclear medicine and scientific reviews. In general the journal has more than 30 headings and it is of interest for specialists working in thefields of medicine¸ radiation biology, epidemiology, medical physics and technology. Since July 01, 2008 the journal has been published by State Research Center - Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center of Federal Medical Biological Agency. The founder from 1956 to the present time is the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, and from 2008 to the present time is the Federal Medical Biological Agency.
Members of the editorial board are scientists specializing in the field of radiation biology and medicine, radiation protection, radiation epidemiology, radiation oncology, radiation diagnostics and therapy, nuclear medicine and medical physics. The editorial board consists of academicians (members of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS)), the full member of Academy of Medical Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, corresponding members of the RAS, Doctors of Medicine, professor, candidates and doctors of biological, physical mathematics and engineering sciences. The editorial board is constantly replenished by experts who work in the CIS and foreign countries.
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The main working language of the journal is Russian, an additional language is English, which is used to write titles of articles, information about authors, annotations, key words, a list of literature.
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The two-year impact factor of RISC, according to data for 2017, was 0.439, taking into account citation from all sources - 0.570, and the five-year impact factor of RISC - 0.352.
Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2019. Vol. 64. No. 6. P. 37–43
DOI: 10.12737/1024-6177-2019-64-6-37-43
M.I. Grachev, Yu.A. Salenko, G.P. Frolov, B.B. Moroz
On the Categorization of Radiological Terrorism Threats
A.I. Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center, Moscow, Russia.
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M.I. Grachev – Leading Researcher, PhD Med.;
Yu.A. Salenko – Head of Dep., Assoc. Prof., PhD Med.;
G.P. Frolov – Senior Researcher;
B.B. Moroz – Head of Lab., Academician of RAS
Abstract
Purpose: To develop approaches to categorization (ranking) radiological terrorism (RT) threats on the basis of expert assessment of the possibility (likelihood) of the implementation of certain RT scenarios and assessment of their medical and hygienic consequences.
Results: Five categories of RT threats are highlighted. The first (most hazardous) threat category includes situations related to use radioactive dispersing devices (RDD), including the “dirty bomb”. It is shown that the creation of a potential threat of radiation exposure to people at the thresholds of deterministic effects may require the activity of radionuclides in RDD in the range of several hundred TBq. The second category of threats includes scenarios of RT related to the placement of high dose rate radionuclide sources in areas of permanent location or mass gathering of people. The third category of threats includes situations when radionuclide sources maliciously place (enclose) into technological equipment and processes, which lead to radioactive contamination of the environment, industrial and socially significant facilities (water treatment plants, warehouses of food and raw materials), manufactured products. It is shown that in the case of the implementation of such RT scenarios, the dose criteria that require protective measures for the public are unlikely to be achieved. The fourth category of threats includes the physical impact on radioactive materials in the nuclear reactors, fuel element storage pools, and radioactive waste storage facilities. The fifth category of threats includes scenarios of RT related to the use of improvised nuclear devices or nuclear weapons by terrorists.
Conclusion: Threats of categories I–III, given the combination of the possibility of implementing RT scenarios and the scale of medical and hygienic consequences, are estimated as relatively high. Threats of category IV and V due to the extremely low probability of their implementation have the lowest rating, despite the great and even catastrophic nature of the consequences.
Key words: radiological terrorism, threat categorization, health impact, “dirty bomb”, radiation related injures, radioactive contamination
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For citation: Grachev MI, Salenko YuA, Frolov GP, Moroz BB. On the Categorization of Radiological Terrorism Threats. Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety. 2019;64(6):37–43. (In Russian).
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