Preliminary dose assessment of the Chernobyl accident
From the major accident at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, a plume of airborne radioactive fission products was initially carried northwesterly toward Poland, thence toward Scandinavia and into Central Europe. Reports of the levels of radioactivity in a variety of media and of external radiation levels were collected in the Department of Energy's Emergency Operations Center and compiled into a data bank. Portions of these and other data which were obtained directly from published and official reports were utilized to make a preliminary assessment of the extent and magnitude of the external dose to individuals downwind from Chernobyl. Radioactive /sup 131/I was the predominant fission product. The time of arrival of the plume and the maximum concentrations of /sup 131/I in air, vegetation and milk and the maximum reported depositions and external radiation levels have been tabulated country by country. A large amount of the total activity in the release was apparently carried to a significant elevation. The data suggest that in areas where rainfall occurred, deposition levels were from ten to one-hundred times those observed in nearby ''dry'' locations. Sufficient spectral data were obtained to establish average release fractions and to establish a reference spectra of the other nuclides in the release. Preliminary calculations indicated that the collective dose equivalent to the population in Scandinavia and Central Europe during the first year after the Chernobyl accident would be about 8 x 10/sup 6/ person-rem. From the Soviet report, it appears that a first year population dose of about 2 x 10/sup 7/ person-rem (2 x 10/sup 5/ Sv) will be received by the population who were downwind of Chernobyl within the U.S.S.R. during the accident and its subsequent releases over the following week. 32 refs., 14 figs., 20 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 6607365
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-38550; CONF-8609147-13; CONF-860820-14; ON: DE87007651
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Nuclear Society annual meeting, Bethesda, MD, USA, 15 Sep 1986; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
CESIUM 134
DOSIMETRY
CESIUM 137
HUMAN POPULATIONS
RADIATION DOSES
IODINE 131
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
CHERNOBYLSK-4 REACTOR
TRANSFRONTIER CONTAMINATION
ACCIDENTS
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CESIUM ISOTOPES
CONTAMINATION
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DOSES
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
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HOURS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
IODINE ISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
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LWGR TYPE REACTORS
MATERIALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
POPULATIONS
POWER REACTORS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTORS
THERMAL REACTORS
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