Buzz
In my role as an instructor for nuclear power plant operations, I often shared stories about radiation sickness, which always captivated my students. Radiation poisoning, or radiation sickness, results from extensive damage to organ tissues due to overexposure to ionizing radiation. While it typically refers to severe issues arising from a high radiation dose received in a short timeframe, it can also apply to individuals repeatedly exposed to significant radiation levels. Symptoms leading to death may include intense nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rapid hair loss, infections, swelling, high fever, and coma.
This compilation explores 10 cases where individuals succumbed to the effects of radiation exposure, along with the details surrounding their deaths.
10. Cecil Kelley
On December 30, 1958, an incident took place at the Los Alamos plutonium-processing facility. Cecil Kelley, a seasoned chemical operator, was handling a large mixing tank. The solution in the tank was expected to be 'lean,' usually containing less than 0.1 grams of plutonium per liter. However, the concentration that day was 200 times higher. When Kelley activated the stirrer, the liquid formed a vortex, causing the plutonium-rich layer to reach criticality. This released an enormous burst of neutrons and gamma radiation in a pulse lasting only 200 microseconds.
Kelley, who had been standing on a foot ladder and looking into the tank through a viewing window, either fell or was thrown to the ground. Two other operators on duty witnessed a bright flash and heard a muffled thud. They quickly rushed to assist and found Kelley incoherent, repeatedly exclaiming, 'I’m burning up! I’m burning up!' He was taken to the hospital semiconscious, experiencing retching, vomiting, and hyperventilation. At the hospital, Kelley’s bodily fluids were so radioactive that they triggered a detector.
Two hours after the incident, Kelley’s condition temporarily improved as he regained coherence. However, it soon became evident that he would not survive for long. Medical tests revealed that his bone marrow was completely destroyed, and the pain in his abdomen became uncontrollable despite medication. Kelley passed away 35 hours after the accident.
9. Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.
Harry K. Daghlian, Jr., an Armenian-American physicist involved in the Manhattan Project, was conducting an experiment on August 21, 1945. He aimed to construct a neutron reflector by manually arranging tungsten carbide bricks around a plutonium core. As he positioned the final brick, neutron counters warned him that adding it would make the system supercritical. While attempting to withdraw his hand, he accidentally dropped the brick onto the assembly, causing an immediate supercritical reaction.
After dropping the brick, Daghlian panicked and tried unsuccessfully to remove it. He had to partially dismantle the tungsten carbide pile to stop the reaction, which exposed him to a fatal dose of neutron radiation. He passed away 25 days later. Daghlian had breached safety protocols by working alone late at night in the laboratory.
8. Louis Slotin
Louis Slotin, a Canadian physicist and chemist, played a key role in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bombs. He was known for conducting criticality tests on plutonium cores, a process often described as 'tickling the dragon’s tail.'
On May 21, 1946, Slotin and seven colleagues conducted an experiment involving the initiation of a fission reaction by positioning two beryllium half-spheres around a plutonium core. Slotin, in violation of safety protocols, used a screwdriver to stabilize the upper beryllium sphere with his left hand, maintaining a gap between the two halves. At 3:20 PM, the screwdriver slipped, causing the upper sphere to fall and triggering a prompt critical reaction accompanied by a burst of radiation. Witnesses in the room reported seeing a blue glow around the spheres and feeling a wave of heat.
Instinctively, Slotin jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper beryllium hemisphere and dropping it to the floor, halting the reaction. However, he had already absorbed a fatal dose of radiation, equivalent to standing 1500 meters from an atomic explosion. Rushed to the hospital, the damage was irreversible, and he died nine days later on May 30, 1946. The core involved was the same one dropped by Daghlian the previous year, earning it the nickname 'Demon Core.'
Slotin’s story is depicted in the film 'Fat Man and Little Boy,' featuring Paul Newman and John Cusack.
7. Eben McBurney Byers
Eben McBurney Byers, a prominent American socialite, athlete, and industrialist, suffered a fall in 1927 while returning from the Harvard-Yale football game on a chartered train. Injuring his arm, he experienced persistent pain and was advised by a doctor to take Radithor, a patent medicine laced with high levels of radium. Over three years, Byers consumed nearly 1400 bottles. By 1930, when he ceased its use, radium had accumulated in his bones, leading to the loss of most of his jaw, brain abscesses, and holes in his skull. He succumbed to radium poisoning on March 31, 1932, and was buried in a lead-lined coffin at Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
6. Hiroshi Couchi
Japan’s most severe nuclear radiation accident occurred on September 30, 1999, at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo. The incident was triggered when workers poured uranyl nitrate solution containing approximately 16.6 kg of uranium, surpassing the critical mass, into a precipitation tank. The tank was neither designed for such solutions nor equipped to prevent a criticality event.
Three workers were exposed to deadly radiation doses. Among them, Hiroshi Couchi was moved to the University of Tokyo Hospital. Initially, he could speak, and only his right hand showed slight swelling and redness. However, his health deteriorated as the radiation destroyed the chromosomes in his cells.
Doctors were uncertain how to proceed, as there were few precedents or effective treatments for radiation poisoning victims. A local television crew documented Hiroshi’s condition for 83 days until his death. Their observations were later compiled into the book, 'A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness.'
5. Marie Curie
Marie Sklodowska Curie, a renowned physicist and chemist, was a trailblazer in radioactivity research. She coined the term 'radioactivity,' although Henri Becquerel had discovered the phenomenon earlier. Curie’s studies on uranium ores, pitchblende and chalcolite, led to the discovery of radium and polonium. Her husband, Pierre, was so captivated by her work that he paused his own research to collaborate with her.
The Curies embarked on the laborious process of isolating radium from pitchblende ore, extracting one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride from a ton of ore. Unaware of the harmful effects of prolonged radiation exposure, they worked without protection. Pierre died in 1906 after a horse-drawn carriage accident, but Marie continued her research for another 28 years, earning two Nobel Prizes. She often carried radioactive isotopes in her pocket and stored them in her desk, admiring their blue-green glow in the dark.
Marie Curie passed away on July 4, 1934, from aplastic anemia caused by prolonged radiation exposure. She was buried in the Sceaux cemetery beside her husband, Pierre. Her laboratory is preserved at the Musee Curie. Due to their high radioactivity, her papers from the 1890s are deemed too hazardous to handle, including her cookbook. These items are stored in lead-lined boxes, and anyone wishing to access them must wear protective gear.
4. Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, fled prosecution in Russia and was granted political asylum in the United Kingdom. In November 2006, he fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, dying three weeks later. Post-mortem tests revealed he had ingested a fatal dose of Polonium-210 through a cup of tea. On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his assassination.
British investigations into Litvinenko’s death caused significant diplomatic tensions between the UK and Russia. Unofficially, British authorities claimed to be '100% certain' of the individuals involved, the location, and the method of poisoning, though they withheld evidence for a potential trial. The primary suspect, Andrei Lugovoy, a former Russian Federal Protective Service officer, remains in Russia and, as a Duma member, is immune from prosecution.
3. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II remain the only instances in history where nuclear weapons were used against human populations. The justification for these bombings has been intensely debated, but their devastating impact has undoubtedly contributed to the global reluctance to use such weapons again.
On August 6, 1945, the uranium bomb 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima, instantly killing 70,000-80,000 people. Three days later, the plutonium bomb 'Fat Man' was dropped on Nagasaki, resulting in the immediate deaths of 40,000-75,000 individuals. Survivors of the initial explosions faced severe radiation and thermal burns, radiation sickness, and related diseases, exacerbated by the lack of medical resources. By 1950, an estimated 200,000 additional deaths were attributed to the long-term health effects of the bombings.
Survivors of the bombings are referred to as hibakusha, a Japanese term meaning 'explosion-affected people.' As of March 31, 2009, the Japanese government officially recognized 235,569 hibakusha, with approximately 1% acknowledged as suffering from radiation-induced illnesses.
2. Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, a catastrophic nuclear accident occurred at Reactor Number 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The incident began during a test to determine how long turbines could supply power to the main circulating pumps after a loss of electricity. Delayed due to another power station going offline, the test was conducted during the night shift by workers unfamiliar with the procedure. A series of critical errors, including disabling automatic shutdown mechanisms, left the reactor in an unstable state with most control rods removed.
The reactor underwent a SCRAM (rapid insertion of all control rods), but a design flaw in the control rods caused the reaction rate in the lower core to surge. This led to a massive power spike and overheating. The exact sequence of events remains unclear, as instruments failed to record the details, and much of the understanding comes from mathematical simulations. What is certain is that a steam buildup in the core caused an explosion, releasing vast amounts of radioactive steam and fission products into the atmosphere. Radiation levels near the reactor core reached 30,000 times the lethal limit.
One person died instantly, and their body was never recovered. Another individual succumbed to injuries sustained during the explosion on the same day. Acute radiation sickness was initially diagnosed in 237 on-site workers and cleanup personnel, with 134 cases confirmed. Of these, 28 died within weeks, including six firefighters who battled fires on the turbine building roof. Between 1987 and 2004, 19 more deaths were linked to the accident. While no off-site individuals suffered acute radiation effects, a significant rise in childhood thyroid cancers has been attributed to radioactive iodine exposure. Studies in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus estimate over 1 million people were affected by Chernobyl’s radiation, though the full impact may never be fully understood.
1. Soviet Submarine K-19
K-19 was among the first two Soviet submarines armed with nuclear ballistic missiles. Its construction claimed several lives, earning it the nickname 'Hiroshima' among naval personnel. On July 4, 1961, under Captain Nikolai Vladimirovich Zateyev’s command, the submarine suffered a critical leak in its reactor coolant system, causing temperatures to soar to a perilous 800 degrees Celsius. Due to design flaws and the absence of a backup cooling system, Captain Zateyev had no option but to assign a team of seven engineering officers to repair the leak, despite the lethal radiation levels.
The repair team successfully stopped the leak, but all seven members died within a week. The incident contaminated the entire submarine, and within a few years, twenty more crewmembers succumbed to radiation-related illnesses caused by the accident.
The Soviet Navy extensively repaired the submarine, and it returned to service. However, it continued to suffer from severe accidents, including a collision at sea in 1969 and a fire in 1972 that killed 28 sailors. It was ultimately decommissioned in 1991.
The film 'K-19: The Widowmaker,' featuring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, draws inspiration from the nuclear incident aboard the K-19 submarine.
