Dose assessments of internal exposure for residents of populated areas of the Bryansk region according to the 2019-2022 survey

   This article presents results of internal radiation dose assessments for the population based on radiation and hygienic surveys of settlements in the Bryansk region bordering the Republic of Belarus in 2019–2022.

   The objective of the study was to perform dose assessments with various models and to determine model parameters to updating. Materials and

   Methods: Calculations were performed for different age groups of the population of the surveyed settlements in the Bryansk region, as well as for critical groups, in accordance with current methodological documents. The results of comprehensive radiation and hygienic survey of settlements and radiation monitoring data were used for dose assessments.

   Results and Discussion: The greatest deviations from the model for ¹³⁷Cs intake with food products (covering the majority of local food products and their consumption by the population) were obtained for the model which parameters are the coefficients of radionuclide transfer from soil to food products (milk and mushrooms) for the adult population living in areas with high levels of soil contamination (more than 555 kBq/m² by ¹³⁷Cs). At the same time, for the population of other areas (the majority of the surveyed settlements), the convergence of the dose assessment results is satisfactory.

   Conclusion: The average annual effective doses of internal exposure to the population of the surveyed settlements do not exceed 1 mSv, and the internal doses to the critical groups do not exceed 5 mSv. Food products of wild origin make a greater contribution to the internal radiation dose than local agricultural food products. The methodology for dose assessment to the population of the Chernobyl territories has proven its stability in basic approaches. Modification of several model parameters has allowed to improve calculation results.

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