Radioactive contamination of the Yenisei River

Global radioactive deposition on the Yenisey-river catchment and its contribution to the summary contamination of the valley

“…First investigations of the radionuclide contamination in the Enisey-river were carried out in the early 1970 by the State Committee of Hydrometeorology of the USSR [1,16]. Data of this period revealed a considerable contamination of the bottom sediments and the river biota around the MCC.…”

“…The airbome-gamma-spectrum data were obtained in framework of the State Radiation Monitoring Program (a leading institution is Institute of Global Climate and Ecology) [4]. Interesting data were received in framework of several international projects, performed by the Kurchatov Institute and the Vernadski Institute [5,11,13,15,16]. Some results were summarized in the reports of the 1STC-project "Radiation Legacy" (RADLEG).…”

Radioecological impact from radionuclide releases into the rivers

“…Radioactive discharges from the Krasnoyarsk complex contaminate the Yenisei River all the way from the city of Krasnoyarsk to its estuary at a distance of about 2000 km [10]. In 1992, two of the three nuclear reactors of the Krasnoyarsk complex were removed from service, which reduced considerably the radioactive contamination of the Yenisei River.…”

“…Table 3 presents results of calculating the dose from 32 P as a result of consumption of 1 kg of fish for different sections of the river and the annual radiation doses from 32 P as a result of consumption of the Yenisei fish for city dwellers, rural residents and fishermen. The calculation was based on the observational data on 2 P fish contamination which were obtained in 1991 [10]. The annual collective dose from the discharges of the Krasnoyarsk complex in 1985-1991 is estimated to be 35 man-Sv (Table 4).…”

“…Doses to biota were estimated with consideration for geometric characteristics of the organisms and the exposure sources and using the methods described in [3,4]. As the input information we used the data of observations and estimated radionuclide concentrations in environmental objects [5][6][7][8][9][10].…”