Radiation survey and environmental impact assessment at the site of temporary storage at Andreeva Bay (16 years of studies)

Abstract

Abstract The site of temporary storage for spent fuel and radioactive waste at Andreeva Bay is a largest nuclear legacy site in the Russian Northwest. The radiation situation within the industrial site and in the surrounding health protection zone (HPZ) is characterised by significant local contamination of the topsoil, which is a source of environmental contamination and potential spread of radioactivity within and outside the HPZ, including the adjacent marine environment. The highest levels of radioactive contamination of soil due to manmade radionuclides have been registered around the spent nuclear fuel storage facilities, where the specific activity of Cs-137 reaches 5 × 107 Bq kg−1, and that of Sr-90, 5.7 × 106 Bq kg−1. Determination of the mobility of these main dose-forming radionuclides has demonstrated that about 90% of the Sr-90 and 30% of the Cs-137 in the soil are in a mobile form. The corresponding figures for bottom sediments are 75% and 60%. The assessment of the impact of contamination in the different areas of the Andreeva Bay site, and the assessment of the adequacy of the previously developed remediation criteria for environmental protection (Sneve et al 2015 J. Radiol. Prot. 35 571) demonstrated that when carrying out remedial work according to any scenario provided for in the Guidelines ‘Criteria and norms for remediation of sites and facilities contaminated with manmade radionuclides’, of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise ‘The Northern Federal Enterprise for Radioactive Waste Management’ for the supervision area, recommendations for environmental protection are followed. For scenarios such as conversion and conservation, reference levels of biota exposure for some species of representative organisms could be exceeded, based on a preliminary conservative assessment.