Protection when handling radiological material

Let there be no doubt; the cost and complexity of using protective systems needed to protect the handler from radiation is not realistic. Our goal is therefore to use protective systems (hazmat suits, improvised and relatively inexpensive lead containers) that allow the builder/transporter of the bomb to survive long enough in order to successfully deploy and detonate it. Ensure that you have drugs against radiation sickness available prior to initiation of operation. These drugs will treat damaged organs, reduce symptoms and manage pain. Decontamination is the removal of as much external radioactive particles as possible. Removing clothing and shoes eliminates about 90 percent of external contamination. Gently washing with water and soap removes additional radiation particles from the skin. Decontamination prevents further distribution of radioactive materials and lowers the risk of internal contamination from inhalation, ingestion or open wounds.

Treatment for internal contamination includes treatments to reduce damage to internal organs caused by radioactive particles. These treatments include the following:

· Potassium iodide is a nonradioactive form of iodine. Because iodine is essential for proper thyroid function, the thyroid becomes a " destination" for iodine in the body. If you have internal contamination with radioactive iodine (radioiodine), your thyroid will absorb radioiodine just as it would other forms of iodine. Treatment with potassium iodide may fill " vacancies" in the thyroid and prevent absorption of radioiodine. The radioiodine is eventually cleared from the body in urine.

· Prussian blue, a type of dye, binds to particles of radioactive elements known as cesium and thallium. The radioactive particles are then excreted in feces. This treatment speeds up the elimination of the radioactive particles and reduces the amount of radiation cells may absorb.

· Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) is a substance that binds to metals. DTPA binds to particles of the radioactive elements plutonium, americium and curium. The radioactive particles pass out of the body in urine, thereby reducing the amount of radiation absorbed.

Supportive treatment

If you have radiation sickness, you should take additional medications or interventions to treat:

· Bacterial infections

· Headache

· Fever

· Diarrhea

· Nausea and vomiting

· Dehydration

Long term exposure of radiation may damage your bone marrow. However, it is unlikely that any Justiciar Knight will expose himself to radiation over a longer period, unless he is seeking radiological sources over a period of several months, so a scenario where you experience damage to your bone marrow is not realistic. In a context where this is a problem, a protein called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, which promotes the growth of white blood cells, may counter the effect of radiation sickness on bone marrow. Treatment with this protein-based medication, which includes filgrastim (Neupogen) and pegfilgrastim (Neulasta), may increase white blood cell production and help prevent subsequent infections.

End-of-life preparations

A Justiciar Knight who has absorbed large doses of radiation (8 Gy or greater) has little chance of recovery and will die. Depending of the severity of illness, death can occur within two days or two to three weeks. Justiciar Knights with a lethal radiation dose should ensure that he has medications to control pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. He should also receive psychological encouragement from fellow Knights if possible.

Hazmat suit and lead containers

Be extremely careful when handling radiological material. One example we can learn from is the radiological accident occurring in Goiâ nia, Brazil, between September 1987 and March 1988: Two metal scavengers broke into an abandoned radiotherapy clinic and removed a teletherapy source capsule containing powdered caesium-137 with an activity of 50 T Bq. They brought it home to one of the men to take it apart and sell it as scrap metal. Later that day both men were showing acute signs of radiation illness with vomiting and one of the men had a swollen hand and diarrhoea. A few days later one of the men punctured the 1 mm thick window of the capsule, allowing the caesium chloride powder to leak out and when realizing the powder glowed blue in the dark, brought it back home to his family and friends to show it off. After 2 weeks of spread by contact contamination causing an increasing number of adverse health effects, the correct diagnosis of acute radiation sickness was made at a hospital and proper precautions could be put into procedure. By this time 249 people were contaminated, 151 exhibited both external and internal contamination of which 20 people were seriously ill and 5 people died.

The Goiâ nia incident to some extent predicts the contamination pattern when an explosion spreads radioactive material, but also how fatal even very small amounts of ingested radioactive powder can be. The goal must be to acquire and use powdered alpha emitting material (or equivalently potent material), that if ingested can pose a serious health risk. This was also the case of deceased former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who either ate, drank or inhaled polonium-210. " Smoky bombs" based on alpha emitters might easily be just as dangerous as beta or gamma emitting dirty bombs.

Justiciar Knight Commanders or Operatives should take the required security measures and at least provide and use secure lead containers. I have not yet researched portable, anti-radiological containers, but it is likely we will have to design and build them ourselves as we need to properly add camouflaging effects to the item for transportation purposes. The containers, perhaps designed as briefcases, must be used in order to prevent alerting your surroundings. When approaching a source, you should equip your anti-radiological hazmat suit and secure the material in your container. When you are at a safe distance you must then un-equip your suit (and transport it in a separate bag) in order to avoid raising red flags from your surroundings.