Nuclear waste related satellite mapping in northwest Russia

In the early phase of a project organized by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) dealing with monitoring of radioactive radiation from nuclear waste deposited at the former naval station Andreeva Bay in northwest Russia, a suitable base map at a scale sufficiently large to be used as a georeferencing tool for radiation measurements and also as a background map for presentations, was not available. It was therefore decided to use high resolution satellite imagery for this purpose, and a collaboration with the Geomatics section - IMT at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), was established.A Landsat-7 ETM+ precision corrected scene from the USGS 15 meter resolution data collection was used as a basis for a georeference adjustment of a system corrected QuickBird sub-scene. By establishing an adequate transformations based on Ground Control Points (GCPs), between the adjusted QuickBird sub-scene and a local grid, it was possible to locate the original radioactive radiation measurements with acceptable precision within the UTM Sone 36 N WGS84 geographical reference frame.At a later stage of the project, after the Satellite Image Map preparation, a digital version in raster format of a Russian topographic map sheet at scale 1:50 000 became available. This dataset offered a possibility for the assessment of the combined Landsat-7 ETM+/QuickBird rectification, and in addition an opportunity for an assessment of the influence of the terrain elevation on the geometry of the rectified satellite image

Nuclear waste related satellite mapping in northwest Russia

In the early phase of a project organized by the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) dealing with monitoring of radioactive radiation from nuclear waste deposited at the former naval station Andreeva Bay in northwest Russia, a suitable base map at a scale sufficiently large to be used as a georeferencing tool for radiation measurements and also as a background map for presentations, was not available. It was therefore decided to use high resolution satellite imagery for this purpose, and a collaboration with the Geomatics section - IMT at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), was established.A Landsat-7 ETM+ precision corrected scene from the USGS 15 meter resolution data collection was used as a basis for a georeference adjustment of a system corrected QuickBird sub-scene. By establishing an adequate transformations based on Ground Control Points (GCPs), between the adjusted QuickBird sub-scene and a local grid, it was possible to locate the original radioactive radiation measurements with acceptable precision within the UTM Sone 36 N WGS84 geographical reference frame.At a later stage of the project, after the Satellite Image Map preparation, a digital version in raster format of a Russian topographic map sheet at scale 1:50 000 became available. This dataset offered a possibility for the assessment of the combined Landsat-7 ETM+/QuickBird rectification, and in addition an opportunity for an assessment of the influence of the terrain elevation on the geometry of the rectified satellite image

On-site gamma dose rates at the Andreeva Bay shore technical base, northwest Russia

The spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and radioactive waste (RAW) storage facility at Andreeva Bay shore technical base (STB) is one of the largest and most hazardous nuclear legacy sites in northwest Russia. Originally commissioned in the 1960s the facility now stores large amounts of SNF and RAW associated with the Russian Northern Fleet of nuclear powered submarines. The objective of the present study was to map ambient gamma dose rates throughout the facility, in particular at a number of specific sites where SNF and RAW are stored. The data presented here are taken from a Norwegian-Russian collaboration enabling the first publication in the scientific literature of the complete survey of on-site dose rates. Results indicate that elevated gamma dose rates are found primarily at discrete sites within the facility; maximum dose rates of up to 1000 mu Sv/h close to the ground (0.1 m) and up to 3000 mu Sv/h at 1 m above ground were recorded, higher doses at the I m height being indicative primarily of the presence of contaminated equipment as opposed to ground contamination. Highest dose rates were measured at sites located in the immediate vicinity of buildings used for storing SNF and sites associated with storage of solid and liquid radioactive wastes. Elevated dose rates were also observed near the former channel of a small brook that became heavily contaminated as a result of radioactive leaks from the SNF storage at Building 5 starting in 1982. Isolated patches of elevated dose rates were also observed throughout the STB. A second paper detailing the radioactive soil contamination at the site is published in this issue of Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved