DECONTAMINATION OF LOCALITIES IN THE BRYANSK REGION AFTER THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

Abstract

The paper presents at first time in Russian the experience of decontamination of settlements located in the ‘Strict control area’ of the Bryansk region. Large scale decontamination campaign was implemented in summer 1989 by Russian Civil Defence forces jointly with the experts of the Institute of Radiation Hygiene. Radiological criteria for decontamination are presented and external dosimetry of the public considered. Recommendations for decontamination of settlements were developed based on modeling and experiments. During five months, 93 settlements with population of 90 this. were decontaminated. Repeated radiation measurements next year and afterwards proved that there was no radioactive re-contamination of the treated areas. Effectiveness of decontamination was estimated by modeling and by individual TLD measurements conducted before and after decontamination. The results of two methods agreed well and the average effectiveness was estimated as 20%. The collective effective dose averted by the decontamination works in 1989 was estimated as 350 man-Sv.

Keywords

• Chernobyl accident
• public exposure
• decontamination
• external dose