Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:11:55.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiation accidents – contribution to radioecological science and ecological lessons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2009

J. Barescut  and
R. M. Alexakhin
R. M. Alexakhin*
Affiliation:
Russian institute of Agricultural Radiology and Agroecology, Obninsk, Russia
Get access

Abstract

The development of atomic industry and nuclear power engineering was accompanied by radiation incidents and catastrophes, some of these being rather large and resulting in radioactive contamination of the environment. Among the most important radiation accidents which have affected expanded areas are: the accident in the USSR in the South Urals with the formation of the East Urals Radioactive Trace in 1957, the accident in Sellafield, the United Kingdom in 1957, and the catastrophe at the Chernobyl NPP in 1986. The resulting radioactive traces – Emergency Radioactive Zones (ERZ) – have become the test sites for large-scale long-term radioecological investigations. The unique natural peculiarities of ERZs (wide variations in the environmental conditions – soil, plant-animal life, climatic factors, etc.) considering a wide range of man-made radionuclides (primarily biologically important 90Sr, 131I and 137Cs) released into the environment have made it possible to quantify the parameters of radionuclide migration via a large number of trophic chains in different natural environments (terrestrial, aquatic and other ecosystems). Information has been collected on radiation and post-radiation effects in various biota representatives in a wide range of doses and dose rates (especially at the population and ecosystem levels). Different countermeasures have been developed and applied on large territories for reducing exposure of the ERZ population and for remediation of the affected areas.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 44 , Issue 5: ECORAD 2008 - Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity , 2009 , pp. 821 - 824
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexakhin R.M., L.A. Buldakov, V.A. Gubanov, Ye.G. Drozhko, L.A. Iljin, I.I. Kryshev, I.I. Linge, G.N. Romanov, M.N. Savkin, M.M. Saurov, F.A. Tikhomirov, Yu.B. Kholina. Large radiation accidents: consequences and protective countermeasures. Eds. L.A. Iljin and V.A. Gubanov. Moscow, IzdAT Publisher (2004).
Medical-biological and ecological impacts of radioactive contamination of the river Techa. Eds A.V. Akleev and M.F. Kiselev. Moscow, RF Health Ministry. 532 p. (2000) (in Russian).
Ecological and medical impacts of the 1957 radiation accident at the PP “Mayak”. Eds A.V. Akleev and M.F. Kiselev. Moscow, RF Health Ministry. 296 p. (2001) (in Russian).
Dunster H.J., Howells H., Templeton W.L. District surveys following the Windscale incident, October 1957. Proc. Second United Nations Intern Conf. On Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy (Geneva, 1–13 September 1958). V.18. Waste Treatment and Environmental Aspects of Atomic Energy. Geneva, United Nations, 1958. P. 296–308.
Fesenko S.V., R.M. Alexakhin, M.I. Balonov, I.M. Bogdevich, B.J. Howard, V.A. Kashparov, N.I. Sanzharova, A.V. Panov, G. Voigt, Yu.M. Zhuchenko. An extended critical review of twenty years of countermeasures used in agriculture after the Chernobyl accident. Sci. Total Environment, 383: 1–24. (2007).
Prister B.S., R.M. Alexakhin, V.G. Bebeshko, I.M. Bogdevich, P.I. Zamostian, Ya.E. Kenigsberg, I.A. Likhtarev, V.A. Poyarkov, V.M. Shestopalov, A.F. Tsyb. The Chernobyl disaster: effectiveness of countermeasures for population protection experience of the international cooperation. Ukrainian Nuclear Society, Kiev (2007) (in Russian).
Alexakhin R.M., B.S. Prister, The cradle of the Russian radioecology (to the 50th anniversary of the Kyshtym accident). Radiation Biology. Radioecology, 48: 235–250 (2008) (in Russian).