Major Factors Affecting Incidence of Childhood Thyroid Cancer in Belarus after the Chernobyl Accident: Do Nitrates in Drinking Water Play a Role?

One of the major health consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986 was a dramatic increase in incidence of thyroid cancer among those who were aged less than 18 years at the time of the accident. This increase has been directly linked in several analytic epidemiological studies to iodine-131 (131I) thyroid doses received from the accident. However, there remains limited understanding of factors that modify the 131Irelated risk. Focusing on post-Chernobyl pediatric thyroid cancer in Belarus, we reviewed evidence of the effects of radiation, thyroid screening, and iodine deficiency on regional differences in incidence rates of thyroid cancer. We also reviewed current evidence on content of nitrate in groundwater and thyroid cancer risk drawing attention to high levels of nitrates in open well water in several contaminated regions of Belarus, i.e. Gomel and Brest, related to the usage of nitrogen fertilizers. In this hypothesis generating study, based on ecological data and biological plausibility, we suggest that nitrate pollution may modify the radiationrelated risk of thyroid cancer contributing to regional differences in rates of pediatric thyroid cancer in Belarus. Analytic epidemiological studies designed to evaluate joint effect of nitrate content in groundwater and radiation present a promising avenue of research and may provide useful insights into etiology of thyroid cancer

Consistent theoretical model for the description of the neutron-rich fission product yields

The consistent model for the description of the independent fission product formation cross-section at light projectile energies up to about 100MeV is described. Pre-compound nucleon emission is described in the framework of the two-component exciton model using the Monte Carlo method, which allows one to incorporate a time duration criterion for the pre-equilibrium stage of the reaction. The decay of the excited compound nuclei, formed after the pre-equilibrium neutron and proton emission, is treated within the time-dependent statistical model with the inclusion of the main dynamical effects of nuclear friction on the fission width and saddle-to-scission descent time. For each member of the compound nucleus ensemble at scission point, the primary fragment isobaric chain yields are calculated using the multimodal approach with the inclusion two superasymmetric fission modes. The charge distribution of the primary fragment isobaric chains was considered as a results of frozen quantal fluctuations of the isovector nuclear matter density at the finite scission neck radius. The calculated fission product formation cross-sections in the neutron, proton, and $\gamma$ -rays induced fission of the heavy actinides are presented

Shape coexistence and triaxiality in the superheavy nuclei

The most recent paper that we have published on the subject of super-heavy nuclei, where we have shown that the prediction of fully self consistent methods can differ significantly from semi microscopic modelsSCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe