This is a listing of criminal acts resulting in acute radiation casualties. It is a subset of the Database of Radiological Incidents and Related Events. Links in the table are to more detailed incident summaries.

The 31 events below, resulting in 17 deaths and 121 injuries, include:

• 10 assaults targeting individuals;
• 9 incidents involving thefts of radioactive sources;
• 5 intentional self-exposures;
• 1 apparent act of sabotage of a research reactor;
• 6 unspecified criminal acts.

Notes on table:

• code: coding for type of accident. See this page for list of codes.
• highest dose: highest dose to any individual; in cases of more than one casualty, most doses were significantly lower. "L" indicates casualties involving localized exposures. "N" indicates the individual(s) receiving the highest dose died from effects other than ionizing radiation.
• deaths: figures are for ionizing radiation-induced deaths only; parenthetical figures include those from other effects (e.g. thermal and mechanical results of explosions).
• public: codes indicating case involved known exposure to the public (i.e. non-employees). See this page for list of codes.
• source: radioisotope involved, if known. See this page for list of codes.
• release: radioactive release into the environment, if any; for point events (e.g. criticality accidents or nuclear detonations), activity is for 1 hour after event.

date	location/link to entry	type of accident/event	code	highest dose (rem)	deaths	injuries	public	source	release
08 Jun 1960	Moscow, Russia, USSR	intentional overexposure	I-s	1,750	1	0	c	Cs-137
03 Jan 1961	SL-1 reactor, Idaho RTA, Idaho, USA	criticality excursion with uranium research reactor	AC-RR	(~350--N)	3	0		* U
~ 1965 - 1968	Pennsylvania, USA	attempt to self-induce abortion using x-ray machine	I-s	?	0	1	c
8 Apr 1972 - Oct 1972	Harris county, Texas, USA	intentional exposure to individual	I-a	L	0	1	x	Cs-137
09 Oct 1972	Primorsky region, Russia, USSR	criminal act using radioactive source	I-c	?	0	1	x	Ir-192
1972	Bulgaria	self-inflicted radiation exposure	I-s	L	1	0	c	Cs-137
17 Mar 1973	Odessa, Ukraine, USSR	criminal act using radioactive source	I-c	?	0	1	x	Co-60
15 Dec 1974	Lipetsk, Russia, USSR	criminal act using radioactive source	I-c	?	0	2	x	Cs-137
Sep 1978	San Francisco, California, USA	intentional self-exposure to radioactive material	I-c	?	0	3	x	P-32
1978	United Kingdom	intentional self-exposure to radiography source	I-s	152	0	1	c	Ir-192
11 May 1979	La Hague, France	radiological assault	I-a	L	0	1	x
29 Jul 1981	Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA	intentional self-exposure to industrial radiography source	I-s	?	1	0	c	Ir-192
14 Jun 1982	Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan, USSR	criminal act using radioactive source	I-c	?	0	7	x	Co-60
1987	Norilsk, Russia, USSR	radiological assault	I-a	?	0	3		Cs-137
18 Aug 1988	Riga, Latvia, USSR	criminal act using radioactive source	I-c	?	0	1	x	Cf-252
24 Aug 1991	Bratsk, Irkutsk, Russia, USSR	attempted homicide using radioactive source	I-a	?	0	1	x	Cs-137
14 Apr 1993	Moscow, Russia	homicide using radioactive source	I-a	?	1	0	x	Cs-137
21 Oct 1994 - 18 Nov 1994	Tammiku, Estonia	exposure to stolen source	I-t	400	1	4	x	Cs-137
01 Oct 1994 - 15 Feb 1996	Republic of China (Taiwan)	intentional poisoning using radioactive material	I-a	?	0	1	x	P-32
~ Feb 1995 - 07 Jul 1995	Zheleznordorozhny, Moscow region, Russia	apparent assault using radioactive material	I-a	770	1	0	x	Cs-137
27 Feb 1996 - 05 Mar 1996	Houston, Texas, USA	exposure to stolen source	I-t	L	0	1	x	Co-60
13 Sep 1999	Grozny, Russia	attempted theft of sources	I-t	high	3	3	c	Co-60
1999	Kingisepp, Russia	exposure to stolen source	I-t	?	3	0	c
May 2001 - Jun 2001	Kandalaksha, Russia	exposure to stolen source	I-t	?	0	4	c
early Dec 2001 - Feb 2002	Liya, Georgia	exposure to stolen source	I-t	?	0	3	c	Sr-90
May 2002	Guangzhou, PRC	intentional exposure using radioactive sources	I-a	~110	0	75	x	Ir-192
2003 - 13 Nov 2003	Kola Harbor, Russia	exposure to stolen sources	I-t	?	?	1+?	c	Sr-90
~03 Sep 2004 - 24 Sep 2004	St. Petersburg, Russia	intentional poisoning using radioactive substance	I-a	?	1	0	x
01 Nov 2006	London, United Kingdom	intentional poisoning using radioactive substance	I-a	?	1	2	x	Po-210
Aug 2007	Clinton, Michigan, USA	theft of sources	I-t	L?	0	1?	c
2-4 December 2013	Hueypoxtla, Mexico, Mexico	radiotherapy source theft	I-t	?	0	3	x	Co-60

© 2007-2014, 2022 by Wm. Robert Johnston.
Last modified 29 November 2022.
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