Decommissioning strategy for liquid low-level radioactive waste surface storage water reservoir.

The Techa Cascade of water reservoirs (TCR) is one of the most environmentally challenging facilities resulted from FSUE "PA "Mayak" operations. Its reservoirs hold over 360 mln m3 of liquid radioactive waste with a total activity of some 5 × 1015 Bq. A set of actions implemented under a special State program involving the development of a strategic plan aimed at complete elimination of TCR challenges (Strategic Master-Plan for the Techa Cascade of water reservoirs) resulted in considerable reduction of potential hazards associated with this facility. The paper summarizes the key elements of this master-plan: defining TCR final state, feasibility study of the main strategies aimed at its attainment, evaluation of relevant long-term decommissioning strategy, development of computational tools enabling the long-term forecast of TCR behavior depending on various engineering solutions and different weather conditions.

[The structure of environmental risk factors to the population's health in the Kolsky North].

The paper considers the problem in the comparative assessment of a carcinogenic risk and harm from ionizing irradiation and some chemical ambient air pollutants (formaldehyde, suspended matter) to the population's health in the Kolsky peninsula. The findings suggest that a chemical risk factor has a much greater impact on human health than a radiation risk factor, which should be taken into account while developing a nature-conservation policy in the region.

Environmental radioactivity studies and regulatory issues.

During the last decades, Russia has developed regulations applying to the territories affected by radioactive contamination. Some regulatory approaches appear to be quite ineffective and contradictory. This paper shows by means of examples the problems and issues associated with some existing situations. A better way for the future is indicated.

[Analyzing the population's health risks from the influence of environmental factors of various nature in vicinity of the Siberian chemical complex].

The paper provides the results of calculating the risks to human health in the cities of Seversk and Tomsk. The cancer risk from man-caused radiation is 2 orders of magnitude lower than that from air pollution with chemical carcinogens. Air contamination of classical chemical pollutants presents a major hazard to human health.

[On hygienic and ecological approaches in radiation protection]. / O gigienicheskom i ékologicheskom podkhodakh v radiatsionno zashchite.

In this paper the problem of substantiation of one of the basic radiation protection ensurance principle is considered: sufficiency of a man radiation safety ensuring for guaranteed ensuring of radiation safety of the environment living components. This paradigm formulated in ICRP recommendations and is often referred to as hygienic or anthropocentric approach to environment radiation protection is laid down the basis of all national, including Russian, regulations in the field of radiation safety. During the last 5-10 years a lot of papers have been published, in which the hygienic principle of environmental safety ensuring is considered as a matter of dispute and the certain logical basis and the quantitative comparative estimations of human exposure doses and most irradiated vulnerable parts of nature doses are given. Change of one of the main radiation protection paradigms will demand for resolution of the enormously difficult and labor-consuming scientific problems. In the present paper, on the basis of UNSCEAR models of critical population groups dose formation and consistent application of conservativeness principle it is shown that for the ground ecosystems today there is no strong reasons for refusal of a hygienic radiation protection principle for benefit of ecological one.