On 17 June 1997 a physicist working as a senior technician at the Nuclear Centre, Sarov, in the Russian Federation, was severely exposed as a result of a criticality accident with an assembly of highly enriched uranium. This is the first report that the IAEA has published on a criticality accident.

A serious radiological accident occurred in Istanbul, Turkey, in December 1998 and January 1999 when two packages used to transport 60Co teletherapy sources were sold as scrap metal. This report gives an account of the circumstances which led to the accident and the medical aspects, and the lessons learned.

On 21 June 1990 a fatal radiological accident occurred at an industrial irradiation facility at Soreq, Israel. An operator entered the irradiation room by circumventing safety systems and was acutely exposed, with an estimated whole body dose of 10-20 Gy. The accident, like earlier accidents at similar irradiators, was the consequence of the contravention of operating procedures. An IAEA review team investigated the causes of the accident. This report presents its findings and recommendations and describes the clinical management of the patient, particularly of the haematological phase. The medical treatment included the use of emerging therapies with haematopoietic growth factor drugs which may rescue the overexposed patient, albeit in this case only temporarily. The report is intended for regulatory authorities responsible for the regulation and inspection of irradiators, operating organizations and physicians who may need to treat overexposed patients.

The Cold War Era left the major participants, the United States and the former Soviet Union (FSU), with large legacies in terms of both contamination and potential accidents. Facility contamination and environmental degradation, as well as the accident vulnerable facilities and equipment, are a result of weapons development, testing, and production. Although the countries face similar issues from similar activities, important differences in waste management practices make the potential environmental and health risks of more immediate concern in the FSU and Eastern Europe. In the West, most nuclear and chemical waste is stored in known contained locations, while in the East, much of the equivalent material is unconfined, contaminating the environment. In the past decade, the U.S. started to address and remediate these Cold War legacies. Costs have been very high, and the projected cost estimates for total cleanup are still increasing. Currently in Russia, the resources for starting such major activities continue to be unavailable.

The radiological accident described in this report took place in Lilo, Georgia, when sealed radiation sources were abandoned by a previous owner at a site without following established regulatory safety procedures. As a consequence, 11 individuals at the site were exposed for a long period of time to high doses of radiation which resulted inter alia in severe radiation induced skin injuries. The present report, which is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, provides information on the medical management of radiation induced skin injuries as well as a comprehensive report on the circumstances and details of the accident and the lessons to be learned.

In April 2002 an accident involving an industrial radiography source containing Ir-192 occurred in Cochabamba, Bolivia, some 500 km from the capital, La Paz. The source, in a remote exposure container, remained exposed within a guide tube, although this was not known at the time. The container, the guide tube and other equipment were transported from Cochabamba to La Paz as cargo on a passenger bus. This bus had a full load of passengers for most of the eight hour journey. The equipment was subsequently collected by employees of the company concerned and transferred by taxi to the company's shielded facility. This publication gives an account of the event, the doses received and the medical assessment. It also presents information relevant to national authorities and regulatory organizations, emergency planners and a broad range of specialists, including physicists, radiation protection officers and medical specialists. It is hoped that dissemination of the information contained in the report will help reduce the likelihood of similar accidents occurring or, if they do occur, help mitigate their consequences