A territory around the destroyed by the 1986 accident 4-th unit of Chornobyl NPP has been contaminated severely by radioactive materials pollution from the damaged unit. During the stage of accident consequences mitigation, the radioactive materials in a form of fragments of building constructions, fuel elements, graphite cladding, and upper layer of soil have been collected and buried. Around the destroyed Unit 4 the “Shelter” have been erected, and the decontaminated territory was covered by such anthropogenic soils as a pure crushed stone, sand and poured concrete. Special investigation indicates, however, that those soil turned out to be contaminated as well, and the main amount of the whole activity is concentrated in the so called active layer of the soil, which is located close to the pre-accident earth surface level. Given report is devoted to a possible mechanism of the soils contamination and radionuclide distributions in soils by way of laboratory analysis of cores of wells, which were drilled in the local zone, and gamma logging data analysis as well. The performed sampling analysis of soils, which belongs to the Shelter object industrial site show that radioactive contamination of anthropogenic soils of the active layer is mainly originates from active impurities (fine dispersed fuel particles) being distributed in a uniform way in the soil volume. The industrial site territory is covered by a concrete of a noticeable specific activity. That concrete during construction of “Shelter” flowed out through chinks in the casing and spread over the surrounding site. The concrete leached small fuel particles and carried those particles away from obstruction in mechanical way. This turned out an effective and power enough mechanism to contaminate the industrial site by radionuclides already just after an active stage of the accident. It seems to be perspective to introduce a technology for reprocessing of industrial site soils by way of flotation. That will permit to concentrate the considerable part of an activity and so to reduce sharply the volume of high-active radwastes, which must be buried.
Skip Nav Destination
ASME 2003 9th International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Remediation
September 21–25, 2003
Oxford, England
Conference Sponsors:
- Nuclear Engineering Division and Environmental Engineering Division
ISBN:
0-7918-3732-7
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
The Nature of Contamination of the Area in the Nearest Vicinity of Chornobyl NPP Destroyed Unit
M. I. Panasyuk,
M. I. Panasyuk
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Search for other works by this author on:
A. D. Skorbun,
A. D. Skorbun
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Search for other works by this author on:
V. V. Ronchar,
V. V. Ronchar
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Search for other works by this author on:
A. V. Zhydkov
A. V. Zhydkov
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Search for other works by this author on:
M. I. Panasyuk
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
A. D. Skorbun
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
V. V. Ronchar
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
A. V. Zhydkov
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
Paper No:
ICEM2003-4737, pp. 1559-1562; 4 pages
Published Online:
February 24, 2009
Citation
Panasyuk, MI, Skorbun, AD, Ronchar, VV, & Zhydkov, AV. "The Nature of Contamination of the Area in the Nearest Vicinity of Chornobyl NPP Destroyed Unit." Proceedings of the ASME 2003 9th International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Remediation. 9th ASME International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Remediation: Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Oxford, England. September 21–25, 2003. pp. 1559-1562. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/ICEM2003-4737
Download citation file:
7
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Development of a Manipulator-Supported Laser Decontamination System
ICONE20-POWER2012
Related Articles
The Fabulous Nuclear Odyssey of Belgium
J. Pressure Vessel Technol (June,2009)
PBMR-A Future Failsafe Gas Turbine Nuclear Power Plant?
Mechanical Engineering (August,2011)
Evaluation of Hydrogel Technologies for the Decontamination of 137 Cs From Building Material Surfaces
ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci (July,2017)
Related Chapters
Dismantling
Decommissioning Handbook
Introduction
Fundamentals of Nuclear Fuel
Nuclear Fuel Materials and Basic Properties
Fundamentals of Nuclear Fuel