HW-TR~67
Contamination of milk after an accidental atomospheric fallout of iodine-131,
R. J. Kirchmann, R. R. Boulenger
“Radioactive contamination in gaseous media," Saclay Symposium,
November
I,
12-16 ,
1963,
Introduction
One of the ways in which contamination of the atmosphere can occur is a
reactor accident, which was the case at Windscale (G.B.) in October, 1957.
This accident, during which it has been estinated‘?) that 27,000 curies
of 1132 and other radicelements were emitted into the atmosphere, has revealed
that, from the viewpoint of the food chain, one of the most important of the
fission products in the case of a reactor incident was radioactive lodine, y231,
This conclusion cannot be denied when we consider, especially:
the
fission yield (3.1%), the very high absorption factor (af 2 1.6)(2) after ine
gestion by the animal, the secretion rate in milk, and finally the half-life
(8.05 days) which permits it to be transferred from the animal to man.
Milk, a major part of the diet of young infants, is the main carrier of
232,
The installations at the Centre d'Etude de l'Energie Nucleaire at Nol,
are located in a region where the major agricultural resource is dairy producta; two thousand producers deliver to 3 dairies, located at least 10 ka
from nuclear installations.
Ina a circie of 15 km radius, the animal eat inated
Production has been 75 million liters in 1962, about 20% of which wae aold as
milk for consumption.
~
_ Two series of experiments, made in 1962 and 1963, have been done under
natural conditions in order to obtain resulta valid to the agricultural pur~
suita of this region,
These tests enabled us to verify if the figures rela-
tive to concentration of 1/91 in milk, extablished during the Windscale acciient
were also valid for the region adjacent to the C.E.N. installationa,
Pose em