Up-to-date radioecological situation around the 'Mayak' nuclear facility

摘要

An overview is given of the modern radioecological situation around the reprocessing plant 'Mayak', which was constructed more than 40 years ago for the production of plutonium for military purposes. The following topics are considered: lake Karachay; artificial water reservoirs contaminated by radionuclides; solid radioactive wastes and their vitrification. Some new approaches, methods and tools developed at the Vernadsky Institute of RES for determination of different radionuclides in various environmental samples from the impact zone of the facility are discussed. The data on distribution, occurrence forms and migration processes of Sr-90,Cs-137, Np-237, Pu-239 and Am-241 in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. [References: 11]