Abstract
Bryansk Polesie is the most 137Cs-contaminated region of the Russian Federation after the Chernobyl NPP accident, where in 2007 (i.e., 21 years after the accident), the radiation monitoring was conducted within the Russia-Belarus Union State Program. The paper is based on the comparison of data obtained in the settlements and at the nearby landscape sites outside the villages. The 137Cs content variability in the most spread in Polesie soils, the podzols, is considered using observations obtained at the monitoring sites in Svyatsk and Demenka. It is shown that 137Cs is fixed at the surface, in the upper soil horizons, which is explained by a high soil sorption capacity. Vast crest-sink floodplains with the great contrast range of the hydromorphic features, which cause great variability of the 137Cs vertical distribution, are typical for the Polesie landscape; this fact is confirmed by observations obtained at the monitoring sites located in Starye Bobovichi and Ushcherpie. It is shown that Polesie pine forest contamination maintains higher contamination density levels compared to the nearby settlements, pastures, and meadow lands in the fluvial plains. Extrapolation of the contamination density data obtained within the first decade after the accident as of 2007, performed with allowance for the correction for decay and the comparison of these estimates with the new data accumulated in the recent years, does not show any significant contradiction.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atlas of Radioactive Contamination of European Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine (IGKE, Rosgidromet, Roskartografiya, Moscow, 1998) [in Russian].
S. K. Gordeev, M. V. Glebov, A. I. Ermakov, et al., “Modeling Migration of the Chernobyl Radionuclides in Different Landscape-soil Conditions,” in Problems of Warning and Liquidation of Extreme Situations and Consequences of Disasters (Nauchno-technicheskii Sbornik No. 9, VNII GOChS, Moscow, 1997) [in Russian].
Data on Radioactive Contamination of the RSFSR Settlements by Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 (as of March 1990) (Obninsk, 1990).
Yu. A. Izrael, S. M. Vakulovskii, V. A. Vetrov, et al., Chernobyl: Radioactive Contamination of Natural Environments, Ed. by Yu. A. Izrael (Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1990) [in Russian].
Yu. A. Izrael, E. V. Kvasnikova, I. M. Nazarov, and E. D. Stukin, “Radiation Monitoring,” in State and Integrated Monitoring of Natural Environment and Climate (Nauka, Moscow, 2001) [in Russian].
E. V. Kvasnikova “Transformation of Soil Contamination Field with Artificial Radionuclides,” in Ecological Monitoring Problems and Modeling of Ecosystems, Trans. Institute of Global Climate and Ecology (Gidrometeoizdat, St. Petersburg, 2002) [in Russian].
E. V. Kvasnikova, O. M. Zhukova, E. N. Borisenko, et al., “Self-purification of Soils from 137Cs in Bryansk Polesie under the Impact of External Factors,” Izv. Akad. Nauk, Ser. Geofiz., No. 5 (2006) [Izv., ser. Geophys., No. 5 (2006)].
E. V. Kvasnikova, O. M. Zhukova, E. D. Stukin, et al., “The Role of Landscape Factors in Changing the Field of Radioactive Contamination by 137Cs in Bryansk Polesie,” Meteorol. Gidrol., No. 6 (2005) [Russ. Meteorol. Hydrol., No. 6 (2005)].
V. G. Linnik, A. P. Govorun, and F. V. Moiseenko, “Landscape-hydrological Peculiarities of Radionuclide Contamination Formation in the Rivers of the Bryansk Region,” in Radioactivity after Nuclear Explosions and Accidents (Gidrometeoizdat, St. Petersburg, 2006).
Methodological Recommendation for Estimating Radiation Situation in Settlements (NPO Taifun, Obninsk, 1993) [in Russian].
F. Besnus, J. M. Peres, P. Guillou, et al., “Contamination Characteristics of Podzols Affected by the Chernobyl Accident,” in The Radiological Consequences of the Chernobyl Accident, Ed. by A. Karaoglou, G. Desmet, G. N. Kelly, and H. G. Menzel (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1996).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Original Russian Text © E.V. Kvasnikova, S.M. Vakulovskii, S.K. Gordeev, O.M. Zhukova, S.V. Konstantinov, D.A. Manzon, V.N. Yakhryushin, 2009, published in Meteorologiya i Gidrologiya, 2009, No. 7, pp. 65–78.
About this article
Cite this article
Kvasnikova, E.V., Vakulovskii, S.M., Gordeev, S.K. et al. Radiation monitoring in Bryansk Polesie twenty-one years after the Chernobyl NPP accident. Russ. Meteorol. Hydrol. 34, 454–463 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3103/S106837390907005X
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S106837390907005X