The radiological accident in Tammiku

On 21 October 1994, three brothers entered a waste repository at Tammiku, Estonia, without authorization and removed a metal container enclosing a caesium-137 source. During the removal the source was dislodged and fell to the ground. One of the men picked up the source, placed it in his pocket and took it to his home in the nearby village of Kiisa. Very soon after entry into the repository he began to feel ill, and few hours later he began to vomit. The man was subsequently admitted to hospital with severe injuries to his leg and hip and died on 2 November 1994. The injury and subsequent death were not attributed to radiation exposure, and the source remained in the man's house with his wife and stepson and the boy's great-grandmother. The boy was hospitalized on 17 November with severe burns on his hands, and these were identified by a doctor as radiation induced. The authorities were alerted, and the Estonian Rescue Board recovered the source from the house. The source was returned to the Tammiku repository on 18 November. The occupants of the house and one of the two surviving brothers were hospitalized and diagnosed as suffering from radiation induced injuries of varying severity. All were subsequently released from hospital, but, at the time of writing this report the treatment to the most exposed individuals is still continuing. The objective of this report is to provide information to national authorities and regulatory organizations so that they can take steps to minimize the risks of similar accidents in the future, and also put in place arrangements to deal with such accidents if they do occur. It is hoped that this report will be of general interest in the radiation protection community, although it si aimed primarily at managers of waste disposal facilities, and legislators and regulators, both in developing countries and in all countries reviewing their radiation protection legislation. This report describes the events leading up to the accident, the course of the accident, the remedial actions taken, and the lessons learnt from the sequence of events. It does not include discussions on theoretical aspects of the use and appropriateness of different methods for dose reconstruction