RADIATION-DOSIMETRY OF AN ACCIDENTAL OVEREXPOSURE USING EPR SPECTROMETRY AND IMAGING OF HUMAN BONE

On 11 December 1991 a radiation accident occurred at an industrial acc elerator facility. A description of the facility and details of the ac cident are reported in Schauer et al., 1993a). In brief, during mainte nance on the lower window pressure plate of a 3 MV potential drop acce lerator, an operator placed his hands, head, and feet in the radiation beam. The filament voltage of the electron source was turned 'off, bu t the full accelerating potential was on the high voltage terminal. Th e operator's body, especially his extremities and head, were exposed t o electron dark current. At approx. 3 months post-irradiation, the fou r digits of the victim's right hand and most of the four digits of his left hand were amputated. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR spectr ometry was used to estimate the radiation dose to the victim's extremi ties. Extremity dose estimates ranged from 55.0 Gy (+/-4.7 Gy) to 108 Gy (+/-24.1 Gy). Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd