Title: Estimation of doses received in a dry-contaminated residential area in the Bryansk region, Russia, since the Chernobyl accident
Author: K.G. Andersson, J. Roed
Reference: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 85, Issues 2–3, 2006, Pages 228-240
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.08.019
Keywords: Radiation dose; Radiocaesium; Urban; Chernobyl; Preparedness; Dry deposition
Abstract: In nuclear preparedness, an essential requirement is the ability to adequately predict the likely consequences of a major accident situation. In this context it is very important to evaluate which contributions to dose are important, and which are not likely to have significance. As an example of this type of evaluation, a case study has been conducted to estimate the doses received over the first 17 years after the Chernobyl accident in a dry-contaminated residential area in the Bryansk region in Russia. Methodologies for estimation of doses received through nine different pathways, including contamination of streets, roofs, exterior walls, and landscape, are established, and best estimates are given for each of the dose contributions. Generally, contaminated soil areas were estimated to have given the highest dose contribution, but a number of other contributions to dose, e.g., from contaminated roofs and inhalation of contaminants during the passage of the contaminated plume, were of the same order of magnitude.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X05002183
Title: Histological changes in Pinus sylvestris L. in the proximal-zone around the Chernobyl power plant
Author: Lavrans Skuterud, Natalia I. Goltsova, Roger Næumann, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Tore Lindmo
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 157, 11 December 1994, Pages 387-397
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-9697(94)90602-5
Keywords: Histology; Pine trees; Radiation doses; Effects; Radioactivity; Chernobyl
Abstract: In September 1990, samples of wood and bark were collected from Pinus sylvestris L. at three locations exposed to different levels of radioactive fallout from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP). Cross-sections of wood from the most exposed location showed a distinct change in histology in the annual ring of 1986, a consequence of the accident on 26 April. The width of annual rings decreased after the accident, and the relative width of latewood in annual rings increased transiently in 1986 and subsequently decreased in 1987. In 1987, an increase in the number of vertical resin ducts was observed, related to contamination at the location, and the number of radial rays decreased at the two locations of higher contamination. The radionuclide content in the bark was found to correlate with the degree of damage in the wood. There are several hypotheses about the contribution from various types
of radioactive contamination, but the results indicate that both ‘cloud γ’ and deposited radioactivity (β and γ) were of importance. The present work suggests that detailed studies of dose-effect relationships after exposure to different dose rates and radiation qualities may establish the usefulness of pine trees as in situ, time-recording differential dosimeters of ionizing radiation.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048969794906025
