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The article presents an analysis relating to the foundation of a small nuclear engineering school to support the industrial development of electrical power generators. This institution would be affiliated to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), located in Harwell and administered by the Nobel prize British physicist John Cockcroft.

Summary: Less than five years after the "Atoms for Peace" speech by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the United Nations General Assembly in December 1953, TRIGA® (acronym for Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics), a new inherently safe type reactor developed for nuclear research, training and isotope production, was conceived, built and operated at the General Atomic Division in San Diego. Over the years, the TRIGA industry has soon evolved into the most widely used research reactor in the world with operating power levels up to 14 MW and designs up to 25 MW. Since 1965 the Laboratory of Applied Nuclear Energy (LENA) of the University of Pavia has been operating a TRIGA research reactor with thermal power levels of 250 kW. The installation is used to support education and training programs, neutron activation analysis activities, medical research, industrial applications, and is mainly dedicated to applied nuclear science in general. These activities will be presented together with the historical and technical aspects of the Nuclear Research Reactor., Competing Interests: The authors of this article have no conflict of interests to disclose., (Copyright© by GIMLE.)

Three years after the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl, 80 human placentae were tested to determine concentrations of cesium 134 and cesium 137 radionuclides. The activities of radionuclides were measured using a low-back ground gamma-ray spectrometry system. Human placentae were obtained from normal and at term pregnancies in women who lived in rural areas of northern-Italy and north-west of Yugoslavia and who in particular used locally grown vegetables and meats. According to the data of other Authors, the low cesium isotopes 134 and 137 levels detected (inferior to 2 Bq/kg) in human placentae suggest that, in the observed geographic areas, the fetal risk following the reactor accident in Chernobyl was negligible.

This paper highlights the risks to which our planet as well as mankind are exposed as a result of the fast and dyshomogenous technological progress. Although this progress has permitted, on the one hand, greater prosperity (however not equally distributed among different peoples), on the other, it has changed the balance between the forces of Nature, thus threatening both our the planet's chances of survival. We are already on the alert; therefore, if we want to avoid dangerous consequences for future generations, we needs to ponder on this problem. We have to stop the "culture of arms", that every year dissipates the resources of industrialized countries. Consequently, let us aim at world peace in order to solve our problems and to guarantee healthy progress for the rising generations, without endangering the capability of the future ones.

The biological effects of cosmic rays and ionising radiations on man are described. Particular attention is paid to the consequences of the environmental pollution caused by the Chernobyl accident and the relationship between I131 radiation and thyroid tumours is analysed.

The effects produced as a consequence of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident in the population of Como are assessed on the basis of the measurements taken in the environment and on the food. Exposure measurements produced by external radiation and the activities of the different radionuclides introduced into the body, by ingestion and inhalation, made it possible to obtain an estimate of the dose equivalent and its somatic and genetic effects on the population. The results show that such effects may produce 0.5-2 cases of malignant tumour in the next 25 years and 0.2-1 case of genetic damage in the next 60 years and are therefore statistically insignificant.

The results of dosimetric evaluations carried out after Chernobyl accident in the Health Physics Department of Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital (Milan) on air, rain and ground contamination are presented. The results obtained show that the incidence of stochastic late effects, both somatic and genetic, will be so low that practically will not be distinguishable from "natural" incidence.

The disastrous accident at the nuclear power station at the Chernobyl on 1986 (April 26) has brought attention to the estimation of radiation health effects and many "experts" were attending to the evaluation on oncogenic mortality increase among the Italian population in the next future. On the contrary at that time too few peoples were worried about the possibility of detecting such an increase. Discussion of this topic is notoriously fraught with difficulties arising from differences of opinion how to estimate low-dose risk in humans without data from direct observation. One opinion is to extrapolate from the data points obtained at relatively high doses toward zero dose (zero extrapolation theory). This permit estimates of risk to be made but, in the final analysis, no data from humans exist that show that low-level radiation exposures produce measurable biologic effects. For that this theory is more useful in radio-protection and medico-legal subjects. It is easy on a statistical basis to prove the impossibility to establish an increase in human cancer after low doses of ionizing radiation such as those received environmentally after the Chernobyl's accident. In this condition to observe the numbers of radiation-induced cancer deaths that far exceed the "natural" incidence would require a follow-up a sample more and more greater than the italian population herself. Indeed the statistical power of a hypothetical follow-up study at a suitable confidence level would require a sample size higher than a milliard of persons for the detection of an increase of a generic cancer mortality and higher then seven hundred of millions for the detection of an increase of the specific thyroid cancer mortality. In more detail the following figures for the parameters needed to curring out the evaluation have been used: medium dose equivalent to the thyroid, 2.03 mSv; medium effective dose equivalent up to december '87, 0.6 mSv; thyroid cancer mortality in the italian population, 0.94 10(-5) y-1; total cancer mortality in the italian population, 22.2 10(-2) y-1; risk factor per unit dose equivalent in thyroid, 0.5 10(-6) mSv-1; risk factor per unit effective dose equivalent, 2.0 10(-5) mSv-1. Applying the foregoing values in statistical inference methods it could be achieved that 7.5 18(8) and 1.25 10(9) persons must be followed-up in the next 30 years to detect a significant increase over the "natural" cancer mortality for thyroid and "total body" radioinduced cancers respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

I131 thyroid uptake after the Chernobyl's accident was sampled in a Val Pellice school. Children were grouped according to sex, age and area of residence. The procedure used in collecting data and calculating the transformation coefficients from activity counts by computer simulation is analysed, as are the errors and sensitivity of the method. The activities were then converted into doses using an intake model. The dose levels identified are lower than the estimates based on the measurement of environmental matrices. Statistical analysis revealed certain subgroups with significantly different levels of absorption: particularly groups accustomed to a different diet or living in particular areas.