2. Acute radiation accidents

Acute radiation accidents first appeared at the end of the 19th century, with the development and use of ionizing radiation. The first recorded events were radiological burns, then, in the 1940s-1960s, criticality accidents during the development of nuclear energy in general and atomic weapons in particular. Since 1950, the multiplication of sources for industrial and medical applications has led to numerous isolated events, with exposure of isolated individuals or small numbers of people to doses of one to several grays.

The distribution of acute radiation accidents by sector of activity is shown in figure 3 for the period 1945-2001. Five hundred and sixty accidents were recorded according to the combined criteria of overexposure...