INPA Seminar Talk

I had the opportunity to give a talk for the Institute of Nuclear and Partical Astrophysics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. The seven youtube videos below this are the talk. I didn't have time to touch up any of the footage, and I likely won't because I'm busy enough working on school and the documentary. Enjoy!

Part 1

Video Editing

I returned from Kiev in August. I have a lot of footage which I have not yet edited and posted here. At this point, I am trying to decide the best way to package all the footage into a smooth coherent documentary. My current thoughts are to edit the footage into two separate documentaries. One would be more technical; it would focus on the specifics of the detectors and dosimetry determinations. The other would be a general documentary covering the overall effects of the accident, its effects, and how the research is continuing to follow it to understand the full impact. At this point I would like to hear from people to know what they would like to see in either documentary. What topics need more clarification? What areas have yet to be covered that you feel should be (there's a good chance I may have this footage and it is not yet posted)? Thank you for your interest in this project.

Why You Should Care About Chernobyl

Before watching the video clip, here’s a synopsis of what it contains and why I added it. This was the talk that was by far the most interesting at the NATO conference about Chernobyl. The woman speaking is Anne Speckhard PhD Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School. She was going to speak on psychiatric effects, but instead chose to speak about how the RCRM could acquire more funding. She began by mentioning this and that she knows that good research is being conducted at the RCRM because they are published in academic journals in the states that are difficult to get published in. But she then asked them how many people actually knew about their studies and how many cared. Her talk was to show them a way to get the funding they need.

I included part of one of the questions at the end because it dealt with “radiophobia”. The sequences are quite choppy. I had to get the clip under 10 minutes. There were long pauses throughout the talk to allow the translators to keep up, so I edited them out.

I already have tons of footage of the radiochemistry lab. That will be the next clip. This one is to show why Chernobyl is important. Also, at this NATO meeting I finally got some literature about the findings at the RCRM. Because my stay here is coming to an end, I wanted to know what else people felt I should cover before I leave. There’s too much material and too many scientists to talk with everyone, so I need some input here to know whom I need to hunt down and speak with. Here is an outline of the research that’s been done:

DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC EFFECTS

Long-term effects in acute radiation syndrome survivors
Cataracts and eye pathology
Leukemia
Cancer
Thyroid cancer in children and adolescents
Renal-cell epithelial tumor growth
Cytogenetic changes in exposed people

COMBINED EFFECTS AT LOW DOSE LEVELS

Hemopoietic System
-Cellular structure of growth zones in primary cultures of hemopoietic --organs and its response to radiation infulence
-Stem cell chromosome aberrations in rat bone marrow at the remote --period after exposure
Nervous System
-Irradiation effects on corticogenesis
-Biological effects of separate and combined influence of ionizing --radiation and stress
-Neuro-immune interaction
Cardiovascular System
Resiratory System
Digestive System
Immune System
Endocrine System and Metabolism
Urinary bladder lesions from chronic long-term low dose radiation
Monitoring of health in NE Ukraine
The concept of low level radiation’s biological effects

HEALTH OF EXPOSED CHILDREN

Health effects
Hemopoietic System
Endocrine Functions
Physicochemical changes of osteon

MEDICAL REHABILITATION

Medical rehabilitation
Thymus factors in radiation protection
Radioprotective food and additives

As you can see, it covers a lot, so please let me know what sounds the most interesting to you.

Whole Body Counter

I had to condense so much footage to get this clip. Please let me know how much is understandable, what needs to be added, what is superfluous, and what needs to be further explained. This section is intended to be more specifically towards an audience of physicists. I asked whether someone needed a perscription from a doctor to be scanned, or what they had to pay to be scanned, and the answer surprised me. Apparently the procedure is free and nothing is needed to be scanned. Anyone can walk in off the street and say that they want to be scanned to see what their activity is and the RCRM doesn't have the right to turn them away. They said that they usually just scan people on the chair scanner because the WBC takes so much power to run that they only scan people who are highly likely to have significant amounts of radionuclides, or those who are highly likely to be completely clean of Cesium. They said that part of that is because now many people don't want to be scanned, especially those who live in the contaminated areas. I was surprised and asked why. They said that at first people were willing to be scanned. Then over the years as their activity dropped and the government noticed that they had less activity, so they cut funding for them. So now the people don't want to be scanned because they're afraid (and rightly so) that they'll receive even less compensation from the government. The sad part is that over the next 10 years or so as cancer begins to appear more and more they'll need the help even more than before.

Sarcophagus Construction Workers

This installment is closer to what I'm going for. I have a lot of film to go through. This was one of the videos I put together from it. I already filmed enough for a couple more clips. The video editing takes quite a while however. The next video will likely be up later this week. I was invited to follow these construction workers as they went through the hoops to work in the Exclusion Zone. After what I filmed their general health is examined by multiple doctors and they have to give "bio-samples" for analysis. Then after the results come back, they are able to work in Chernobyl. I wish some of them would have agreed to talk on camera because that would have been much more powerful. I have much more footage of the equipment the measurements were taken with.

The next video will likely be devoted to the WBC (Whole Body Counter) and all it's equipment. One of the things I found the most interesting was how they created the phantoms to calibrate it. But I'll save that for next time. I also attended a NATO meeting about Chernobyl here in Kiev and finally got what I'd really been looking for: a book containing all the research that has been conducted regarding Chernobyl. Now I have a map and I can better plot a course for what to cover. Unfortunately I don't have it with me currently, but I will post an overview of the research in a blog either later today or tomorrow. Please let me know what seems interesting to you and what you feel would be a good direction to go with the documentary.

At this point it seems to me that perhaps the best thing to do will be to make two documentaries. One which does a comprehensive review of what we've learned from Chernobyl research, because most the documentaries about Chernobyl are not based in the actual research that's been done. They've either been unscientific and for shock value, or they've gotten all their facts from scientists who haven't even worked in the area with the people. I feel like there needs to be a documentary which accurately portrays the damage that's been done and doesn't downplay it or over-emphasize the problem. Then I could make another shorter documentary about a particular part of the research and go in depth. I'm very interested in the dosimetry. So please let me know what you find interesting and what you'd like to see happen.

First video

Well, this video isn't what I expected to post, but given the circumstances, I think it turned out all right. I've been in Ukraine for just under 2 weeks and I've managed to find an apartment to live in, find where all the stores and such were that my family and I would need, and met with some scientists at the RCRM. The rest of the videos (in theory) will be with scientists and/or at Chernobyl or related testing locations. I thought while I was still waiting to make contact with the scientists I ought to do something with the project. So I went out on the street and interviewed various people of different genders and ages to get a feel for the publics understanding of how Chernobyl effects them. I thought that in the final documentary these could either be an introduction of sorts to illustrate part of the purpose of research, namely to inform the public, or they could be used in short clips to introduce new topics of research (assuming the content of the clip applies to that particular research).

Just so I can get input on future directions and content, here's what I have going currently: I'm working with Oleg Perevoznikov who developed a whole body radiation counter and still works with dosimetry to measure the amount of radionuclides in children who are either from the contaminated areas or are children of the liquidators. I have a temporary office in their lab and yesterday, I was not only scanned in their equipment, but I was able to scan multiple children who came in for their checkups. Yes, that's right, the laws are much different here. Strangely enough while I was scanning these children (with a worker watching just to be sure I didn't forget to do anything) the parents were not allowed in the room for the scan! Don't ask me because I don't really understand that either. That should answer Dr. Huda's question about what forms need to be filled out to use information about patients in research. I'll ask directly just to be sure anyhow. Anyway, judging from that experience, I'm guessing I could videotape children getting their usual scans and get a good look at that laboratory. There are about 5 other labs that I'll be checking out in the next week or so and I'll also have the opportunity to work with Vadim Chumak who developed the method of examining tooth enamel to determine dose.

Invitation

In 1986 thousands of lives were affected when a reactor in Chernobyl went up in flames. This event changed the lives of many people and changed an entire countryside. This terrible accident does, however, offer the world an opportunity to learn things about radiation and its effects on people, animals and the environment which we could never ethically learn in a laboratory. There have been documentaries made about the humanistic effects of this tragedy, but none discuss the discoveries and research which has resulted from it. My plan and hope is to make such a documentary. In order to do so, I believe that the best way to do so is to involve a large community in the decision making process. I will be in Ukraine this summer to make the documentary. I will be interviewing multiple scientists who have and are conducting Chernobyl related research. I will be posting video clips of interviews and other related footage online on a periodic basis. Those interested can then view the clips and give comments, criticisms, and ask follow-up questions to the interviews. Taking the blog comments I will then conduct further interviews. I look forward to working with all of you in this process and watching this project evolve. Please let everyone who would be interested in this know about it. As I get more information it will be posted here.