Is Chornobyl town suitable for living of people with regard to radiological factor?
"Life goes on" Klimakovych Vitaly Born 2002 ( zhytomyr.info ) That's essentially was a key question during the press ...

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"Life goes on" Klimakovych Vitaly Born 2002 (zhytomyr.info) |
External exposure of the personnel
The main acceptable in the world radiological indicator is the individual dose for a term of 1 calendar year. The main direct data source of individual exposure in the Exclusion Zone including Chornobyl city is data on individual dose monitoring (IDM) of the personnel of enterprises that conduct their activities there. So according to the IDM data register of the Chornobyl Radiioecological Centre (the director of which I had a honor to work in the period 2005-2011) since 2001, the average annual individual dose of external exposure of the personnel (it was from 3 to 7 thousand employees) varied within 0.9 - 1.2 mSv (millisievert).
For example, a long-term trend of individual and collective doses and the number of the personnel in the Exclusion Zone (excluding the Chornobyl NPP personnel, which has its own IDM service that serves its own staff, contractors and visitors) is presented in the graph. The dose value for 2009 in the graph presented excluding data for November and December.
- blue solid - individual dose, mSv/year;
- red solid - personnel number, thousand;
- green dashed - collective dose, man·Sv/year;
- magenta dashed - maximal individual dose, mSv/year;
- occupational exposure to radiation at hazardous workplaces (can be applied the a small part of the whole personnel);
- "Chornobyl background" radiation (i.e. sources of Chornobyl origin in dissipated in the environment) and
- natural exposure.
Internal exposure
Exposure to human is defined as internal and external depending on where a source of radiation is located: outside or inside a body (e.g., see IAEA Glossary).
- The average concentration of 137Cs in the air in Chornobyl town is approximately 2·10-5 Bq/m3, and the maximum concentration in short periods of time reaches 2·10-4 Bq/m3.
- The average concentration of 137Cs and 90Sr in water of Prypyat river in the alignment of Chornobyl town is stable in recent years and is at level of 70 and 150 Bq/m3, respectively (total of dissolved and suspended forms).
- The average concentration of 137Cs and 90Sr in the water for drinking purpose from groundwater sources in the area of Chornobyl town is about 3 - 4 Bq/m3.
Comparison with permissible levels
In order to assess a degree of risks presented by the aforementioned radiological factors, regulatory limits established for doses and concentrations of radionuclides in various substances that surround a person or that a person uses have to be involved to the analysis. Also levels of nutural exposure to the public should be taken into account. The result of this comparison is as follows:
Radiological indices
of residence in Chornobyl town (minus the professional and natural exposure) |
Actual average indicator in Chornobyl town
|
Dose limit or permissible value for a member of the public
| |
External dose, mSv/year |
0.1 (*)
|
1 (****)
| |
Internal dose, mSv/year |
Data not available
| ||
137 Cs concentration in air, Bq/m3 |
2·10-5
|
0.8
| |
Concentration in water, Bq/m3 | 137Cs |
4 (**)
|
100 000
|
90Sr |
4 (***)
|
10 000
| |
137Cs content in human body, Bq/kg |
10
|
435 (*****)
|
(*) Direct data are not available. External dose for living in Chornobyl town is assessed as the difference between nominal external IDM data and the level of natural exposure at level of 0.1 mSv/year. Strictly speaking, this estimate is not sufficiently correct: actually the considered value can not be determined using the existing IDM methodology.
(**) The 137Cs concentration in water of Prypyat river - 70 Bq/m3 (this water is not used for drinking).
(***) The 90Sr concentration in water Prнpyat river - 150 Bq/m3 (this water is not used for drinking).
(****) The total of external and internal exposure.
(*****) Constant 137 Cs content of such a value roughly corresponds to 1 mSv/year for peroral pattern intake, using the dose conversion factor from [4].
Contamination of territory and public exposure in the Exclusion Zone
For radiological assessment of the Exclusion Zone in the first approximation a map of radioactive contamination can be used. The map of 137Cs contamination of the Exclusion Zone as for December 01, 2002 is presented below.
Natural radiation
For an adequate perception of the estimated exposure levels for stays in Chornobyl town attention has to be payed to the current levels of exposure from natural origin. According to UNSCEAR world average annual rates of natural exposure to human look as follows (mSv/year) (see, e.g., here ):
Internal exposure
|
1.55
|
External radiation | 0.87 |
The total exposure | 2.42 |
But in some countries, including Europe (and Ukraine), these levels are much higher. Distribution the total dose (and its components) of natural exposure to most European countries is presented in the figure below (see here).
Territory zoning
In addition the presented map of radioactive contamination gives an idea of the territory parts having a higher priority for returning to normal use. As it can be seen these are the southern part of the Zone, the western part around the railway station Vilcha and north side protruding towards Belarus. It is for these reasons some time ago the State Administration of the Exclusion Zone (now - the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management) drafted a map of functional diivision of the Exclusion Zone and Zone of Obligatory resettlement (shown below). This map proposed the division of the territory into three areas: industrial (I), buffer (II), and residential (III).
Prerequisites for transition to recovery phase
The main prerequisite for the early development of the exclusion zone is not even the radiological situation, but the fact that human activity in the Exclusion Zone has never ceased, including:
- The basis of daily life in the Zone are projects of radioactive waste management, construction Sarcophagus-2 and decommissioning of the Chornobyl NPP (several thousand permanent jobs);
- Business activity: export of wood and metal, as well as trading activity, etc. are performed on a commercial basis;
- Squatters (self-settlers) have always lived in the Exclusion Zone;
- Gradually, new settlers have been "colonizing" Chornobyl ;
- Annually tens of thousands of visitors let entering the Zone in with the especial peak on Memorial Days (end of April - beginning of May).
- level of knowledge about the actual level of radioactive contamination of the environment, human exposure formation for living in conditions of radioactive contamination, radiobiological effects of ionizing radiation to humans;
- knowledge of radiological indices of the Zone, sometimes called radiological situation;
- availability of legally established criteria for clearance the territory from regulatory control;
- economic capability and feasibility of such a transition;
- availability of legal mechanisms to ensure this transition, particularly with using legal mechanisms of the Law of Ukraine "On the zone of ecological emergency" [5];
- political will and public support.
Settling the areas
In fact, positive thinking is what realy lacks in addressing many Chornobyl issues. Observations of sociologists and physicians in the post accident years show that many people have developed uncontained (and sometimes pegged) the "Chornobyl victim" syndrome. Moreover, paternalistic preferences are inherent to much of the public. Negative thinking - this is indeed the legacy of Chornobyl, which should be overcome.
- Cardinal review of the list of settlements (towards their reduction) from the zones of radioactive contamination outside the Exclusion Zone (this process is already under control of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine).
- Preparation of a legal act of the completion of the Chornobyl accident and the beginning of the transition to renewable phase (in accordance with the regulatory classification phase radiation accidents).
- The primarily withdrawal of Chornobyl town from the Exclusion Zone, introduction of "civil" local authorities with further development of towns Vilcha and Polisske.
- Urgent development and launch of the program for development of abandoned lands of the Zone, released from regulatory control.
Epilogue
My older daughters has been already visited Chornobyl, in adult age. I have a dream to come freely to Chornobyl with my youngest son before he reaches 18 ...
References
- Law of Ukraine "On Legal Regime of the territories contaminated by the Chornobyl disaster" dated February 27, 1991 No. 791st-XII ( http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/791% D0% B0-12 )
- Law of Ukraine "On the status and social protection of citizens who suffered from the Chornobyl disaster" dated February 28, 1991 No. 796-XII (http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/796-12)
- O.O. Bondarenko Exclusion Zone - a factor of radiation risk to the public. SES - preventive medicine, No. 2, 2005, p. 88-95.
- Balonov M.I., Barkovskyy A.N., Brook G.J. and others Radiation monitoring of public exposure in laotdalennыy period after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. TC project RER/9/074, IAEA, Vienna, Austria, 2007.
- Law of Ukraine "On the zone of ecological emergency" dated July 13, 2000 No.1908-III (http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=1908-14)
Author
Olegh Bondarenko
- 1980 - graduate of the Physics Department of Kyiv State University. Tarasa Shevchenko, specialty - nuclear physics, qualification - experimental nuclear physics, Kyiv.
- 2002 - Diploma of Doctor of Biology (specialty radiobiology) for the successful defense of a thesis entitled "Problems of internal dosimetry of human exposure by transuranic radionuclides", Kyiv
- 2002-2005 - Deputy Director - Head of the radiation safety, State Specialized Scientific Industrial Enterprise "Chornobyl Radioecological Centre", Chornobyl responsibilities: management of the radiation safety in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and Zone (compulsory) resettlement.
- 2005-2011 - Director of the Specialized Scientific Industrial Enterprise "Chornobyl Radiological Center", Chornobyl, responsibilities: implementation of regulations for dose and radiation monitoring of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and Zone of Obligatory Resettlement.