Open AccessAmbient dose equivalent rate and soil contamination density with 137Cs in kitchen gardens in settlements of the Bryansk region, Russia in 2020–2021
Author(s) -
В. П. Рамзаев,
A. N. Barkovsky,
А. А. Братилова
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
radiacionnaâ gigiena
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1998-426X
DOI - 10.21514/1998-426x-2021-14-4-85-95
Subject(s) - contamination , radionuclide , environmental science , equivalent dose , soil test , radioactive contamination , human settlement , dose rate , environmental chemistry , soil science , soil water , geography , radiochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , radiation , physics , ecology , nuclear physics , biology
The article provides results of application of the field (in situ) gamma spectrometry method for carrying out mass monitoring measurements of ambient dose equivalent rate and soil contamination density with 137 Cs in kitchen garden plots located in the zone of radioactive contamination after the Chernobyl accident. In 2020 and 2021, 115 private farmsteads in 46 settlements of the Bryansk region were surveyed. At the time of the survey, the officially established average density of soil contamination with 137 Cs in the settlements ranged from 27 to 533 kBq/m 2 . The field spectra were measured using a portable scintillation gamma-spectrometer-dosimeter. Results of the field measurements and subsequent calculations of soil contamination density with 137 Cs in the kitchen gardens were in good agreement with official data on the average soil contamination density with 137 Cs in the surveyed settlements. The mean value of the ratio of the experimental data to the official data was 1.04. Individual values of experimental data deviated from corresponding official values by no more than two times. The use of the gamma spectrometry method in situ made it possible: 1) to determine separately values of the ambient dose equivalent rate from 137 Cs and from natural radionuclides in the soil, and 2) to estimate the effective external doses to a person who worked in the kitchen gardens. The measured values of ambient dose equivalent rate varied from 17 to 53 nSv/h (mean ± standard deviation = 35 ± 9 nSv/h) for natural radionuclides and from 8 to 432 nSv/h (mean ± standard deviation = 125 ± 91 nSv/h) for 137 Cs. The ambient dose equivalent rate from 137 Cs normalized to the soil contamination density with 137 Cs in the same kitchen garden was in the range of 0.41–0.84 (nSv/h)/(kBq/m 2 ) with a mean value of 0.55 (nSv/h)/(kBq/m 2 ). If a person stayed in kitchen garden for 840 hours per year, the estimated effective external doses from natural radionuclides and 137 Cs were respectively in the range of 0.008–0.025 mSv/year and 0.004–0.20 mSv/year.