Radioactive atmospheric discharges of the European and Russian nuclear power plants

Comparison of radionuclide specific indicators in airborne discharges to atmosphere from European and Russian nuclear power plants was carried out. The performed analysis allows determining airborne discharge structure and the environmental impact of nuclear power plant with different types of reactor. Analysis of experimental data on radioactive airborne discharges from Russian nuclear power plants is carried out. The nuclear power plants with three different kinds of reactors are investigated. The performed analysis allows determining the list of radionuclides in airborne discharges, which give from 84 to 99 % of radiation exposure population. © RAD Conference Proceedings. All rights reserved

Review of Past Nuclear Accidents: Source Terms and Recorded Gamma-Ray Spectra

Airborne gamma ray spectrometry using high volume scintillation detectors, optionally in conjunction with Ge detectors, has potential for making rapid environmental measurements in response to nuclear accidents. A literature search on past nuclear accidents has been conducted to define the source terms which have been experienced so far. Selected gamma ray spectra recorded after past accidents have also been collated to examine the complexity of observed behaviour

Releases of Radionuclides to Surface Waters at Krasnoyarsk-26 and Tomsk-7

During the Cold War, production and testing of nuclear weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union led to major releases of radioactive materials into the environment. Although large studies have begun to clarify the magnitude and impact of releases in the United States, only since Perestroika has information become available to begin an evaluation of the significance of releases into the environment in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The Radiation Safety of the Biosphere (RAD) Project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), begun in 1995, is currently evaluating the radiation legacy of the nuclear weapons complex in the FSU. Because the three sites of Chelyabinsk-65 (Mayak Production Association - MPA), Tomsk-7 (Siberian Chemical Combine - SCC), and Krasnoyarsk-26 (Mining and Chemical Combine - MCC) account for the vast majority of the radioactive materials released into the environment in the FSU, these sites are the focus of RAD's studies. Contamination of such sites has resulted from normal and emergency atmospheric releases (such as the 1993 tank explosion at Tomsk-7), discharge of radioactively contaminated waste and cooling waters into rivers, spills and leaks, and deep-well injection disposal of liquid radioactive waste. This study is limited to the impact of past discharges of radioactive materials to the Yanisei River at the MCC and the Tom River at the SCC. Future studies are planned to assess the significance of deep-well injection of wastes at the MCC

Assessment of possible airborne impact from nuclear risk sites ? Part II: probabilistic analysis of atmospheric transport patterns in Euro-Arctic region

International audienceThe probabilistic analysis of atmospheric transport patterns from most important nuclear risk sites in the Euro-Arctic region is performed employing the methodology developed within the "Arctic Risk" Project of the NARP Programme (Baklanov and Mahura, 2003). The risk sites are the nuclear power plants in the Northwest Russia, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, United Kingdom, and Germany as well as the Novaya Zemlya test site of Russia. The geographical regions of interest are the Northern and Central European countries and Northwest Russia. In this study, the employed research tools are the trajectory model to calculate a multiyear dataset of forward trajectories that originated over the risk site locations, and a set of statistical methods (including exploratory, cluster, and probability fields analyses) for analysis of trajectory modelling results. The probabilistic analyses of trajectory modelling results for eleven sites are presented as a set of various indicators of the risk sites possible impact on geographical regions and countries of interest. The nuclear risk site possible impact (on a particular geographical region, territory, country, site, etc.) due to atmospheric transport from the site after hypothetical accidental release of radioactivity can be properly estimated based on a combined interpretation of the indicators (simple characteristics, atmospheric transport pathways, airflow and fast transport probability fields, maximum reaching distance and maximum possible impact zone, typical transport time and precipitation factor fields) for different time periods (annual, seasonal, and monthly) for any selected site (both separately for each site or grouped for several sites) in the Euro-Arctic region. Such estimation could be the useful input information for the decision-making process, risk assessment, and planning of emergency response systems for sites of nuclear, chemical, and biological danger

Marine radioecology after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident : are we better positioned to understand the impact of radionuclides in marine ecosystems?

© The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science of The Total Environment 618 (2017): 80-92, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.005.This paper focuses on how a community of researchers under the COMET (CO-ordination and iMplementation of a pan European projecT for radioecology) project has improved the capacity of marine radioecology to understand at the process level the behaviour of radionuclides in the marine environment, uptake by organisms and the resulting doses after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident occurred in 2011. We present new radioecological understanding of the processes involved, such as the interaction of waterborne radionuclides with suspended particles and sediments or the biological uptake and turnover of radionuclides, which have been better quantified and mathematically described. We demonstrate that biokinetic models can better represent radionuclide transfer to biota in non-equilibrium situations, bringing more realism to predictions, especially when combining physical, chemical and biological interactions that occur in such an open and dynamic environment as the ocean. As a result, we are readier now than we were before the FDNPP accident in terms of having models that can be applied to dynamic situations. The paper concludes with our vision for marine radioecology as a fundamental research discipline and we present a strategy for our discipline at the European and international levels. The lessons learned are presented along with their possible applicability to assess/reduce the environmental consequences of future accidents to the marine environment and guidance for future research, as well as to assure sustainability of marine radioecology in Europe and globally. This guidance necessarily reflects on why and where further research funding is needed, signalling the way for future investigations.The research leading to this paper has received funding from the European Union's seventh Framework programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. is 604974 (Projects within COMET: Marine Initial Research Activity and The impact of recent releases from the Fukushima nucleaR Accident on the Marine Environment - FRAME). Sampling off Japan has been supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Deerbrook Charitable Trust and contributions to the WHOI Centre for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity. We acknowledge the JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas Grant No. 24110005 for supporting in part the activities during the research cruises to the FDNPP area