Atomic Energy, Vol. 79, No. 4, 1995

I R R A D I A T I O N D O S E R E C E I V E D BY S P E C I A L I S T S W O R K I N G

IN R A D I O A C T I V E L Y C O N T A M I N A T E D T E R R I T O R I E S

V. P. Romanov UDC 621.039

Accidents in the Urals and at Chernobyl resulted in the contamination of extensive territories with radioactive

substances. In this connection, there arose the problem of protecting workers from different sectors of the economy, who

work in these territories, from radiation. In 1991 a "Plan for the population remaining in regions affected by the Chernobyl accident" was approved and a new

dose criterion, fives times more stringent than in NRB-76/87, was approved for taking measures to protect the population

during accidents from radiation factors. It was acknowledged that such measures had to be taken for a level of additional

excess irradiation dose above 1 mSv (0.1 rem) per year above the natural and technogenic background. The basic positions

of this plan, including the dose criteria, have been incorporated in a law of the Russian Federation, enacted in June 1992,

concerning the introduction of changes and additions to the law of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic "On social

protection of citizens affected by radiation due to the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant."

In 1986--1991 a system of measures was developed for protecting from radiation the public working in contaminated

territories [1--3]. This system included development of industry standard documents containing principles and methods for

ensuring radiation safety in different types of production work in the contaminated territories and standards-management

documents for enterprises concerning organization of dosimetric monitoring services (groups), equipping of enterprises with

radiation monitoring means, and training of personnel regarding questions of radiation shielding and monitoring.

The creation of dosimetric monitoring services (groups) for some production associations in the power-generation and

electrification industries and, specifically, for the line personnel of electrical grids as well as enterprises producing construc-

tion materials and other areas of industry made it possible to determine the levels of irradiation of specialists working at

radioactively contaminated locations, including also at enterprises located in the territories of the Bryanskaya, Orlovskaya,

Lipetskaya, and Tambovskaya Regions. The monitoring was conducted with the aid of TLD-500K thermoluminescence

dosimeters using DTU cassettes and a UPF-02 device of the KDT-02M complex. The surface density of 137Cs in these

territories in December 1989 did not exceed 5 Ci/km 2. Nonetheless, according to data for 1993, the yearly dose exceeded 1

mSv (0.1 rem) in 5 % of the individuals monitored. The external irradiation dose presented in Table 1, taking into account the

fact that some individuals were monitored for one to three quarters, was converted to 1 yr. Personnel from the same enter-

prises were monitored with the aid of a portable radiation spectrometer in 1994 and showed that the internal irradiation dose

does not exceed 5 % of the external irradiation dose.

TABLE 1. Ratio of the number of individuals monitored, whose individual external irradia-

tion dose for 1993 exceeded 1 mSv (0.1 rem)

Indicator

Number of enterprise Numl~er of individuals monitored Number of individuals with an irradiation dose greater than 1 mZv (0.1 rem)

Region Orlovskaya ! Lipetskaya

w

1 [ 2 3 4 75 I 106 47 70

2 I 1 I 2 3

Tambovskaya B~anskayz 5 6 7 8 41 168 50 48

b

2 i 2t 0 0

Total

605 (100%)

31 (5%)

"t~kos" MP. Translated from Atomnaya l~nergiya, Vol. 79, No. 4, pp. 306--307, October, 1995. Original article

submitted April 17, 1995.

1063-4258/95/7904-0715512.50 �9 Plenum Publishing Corporation 715

It would be useful to perform similar investigations in more seriously contaminated territories of the Bryanskaya and Tul'skaya Regions.

REFERENCES

.

2.

3.

V. P. Romanov, Dosimetry Specialist at Nuclear Power Plants, Instructions for Workers (Operator Library for Nuclear Power Plants, No. 16) [in Russian], l~nergoatomizdat, Moscow (1986). Regulations for personnel working in electrical grids and other organizations of the Ministry of Energy Production of the USSR in a zone of radioactive contamination, Russian Ministry of Fuels and Energy, Moscow (1991). Radiation safety rules for industrial enterprises working with building materials in a radioactively contaminated zone,

"Rosstrom" RAO, Moscow (1991).

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