Validation of 131I ecological transfer models and thyroid dose assessments using Chernobyl fallout data from the Plavsk district, Russia

Title: Validation of 131I ecological transfer models and thyroid dose assessments using Chernobyl fallout data from the Plavsk district, Russia

Author: I. Zvonova, P. Krajewski, V. Berkovsky, M. Ammann, C. Duffa, V. Filistovic, T. Homma, B. Kanyar, T. Nedveckaite, S.L. Simon, O. Vlasov, D. Webbe-Wood

Reference: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 101, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages 8-15

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2009.08.005

Keywords: Chernobyl accident; Iodine-131; Environment modeling; Models validation; Population; Thyroid dose

Abstract: Within the project “Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety” (EMRAS) organized by the IAEA in 2003 experimental data of ¹³¹I measurements following the Chernobyl accident in the Plavsk district of Tula region, Russia were used to validate the calculations of some radioecological transfer models. Nine models participated in the inter-comparison. Levels of ¹³⁷Cs soil contamination in all the settlements and ¹³¹I/¹³⁷Cs isotopic ratios in the depositions in some locations were used as the main input information. 370 measurements of ¹³¹I content in thyroid of townspeople and villagers, and 90 measurements of ¹³¹I concentration in milk were used for validation of the model predictions.A remarkable improvement in models performance comparing with previous inter-comparison exercise was demonstrated. Predictions of the various models were within a factor of three relative to the observations, discrepancies between the estimates of average doses to thyroid produced by most participant not exceeded a factor of ten.

URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X09001751