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Retrospective Assessment of the Formation of the Radiation Situation in Pine Plantations in the First Year after the Chernobyl Accident

  • RADIOECOLOGY
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Abstract

The results of retrospective assessment of the density of radionuclide deposition as result of the Chernobyl accident for pine plantations growing on a northern highway of the Belarusian sector of the 30-kilometer zone around the station are presented. A decrease in the total density of soil contamination and the proportion of radionuclides of the fuel component of emissions was found with growing distance from the Chernobyl NPP. A change in the contribution to the absorbed dose rate from external β- and γ-radiation along the height of woody plants depending on the time and location of experimental objects in relation to the Chernobyl NPP is analyzed. The important role of external β-radiation in the formation of irradiation of crowns of woody plants in first months after radioactive fallout is shown. The decrease in the absorbed dose rate from external β- and γ-radiation in the studied plantings is proportional to the contribution of short-lived radionuclides to the total radioactive contamination. Up to 40% of the radiation dose absorbed by crowns of woody plants was accumulated in the first month after radioactive emissions, and up to 60% was accumulated during the next two months. The results of a retrospective assessment of the formation of the radiation situation in the first year after emergency fallout in pine plantings can be used to assess the long-term consequences of irradiation for living organisms.

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Funding

This article was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 21-16-00004.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Russian Institute of Radiology and Agroecology, Obninsk, Russia

    T. V. Perevolotskaya, A. N. Perevolotsky & S. A. Geras’kin

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  1. T. V. Perevolotskaya
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  2. A. N. Perevolotsky
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  3. S. A. Geras’kin
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Correspondence to S. A. Geras’kin.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Translated by L. Solovyova

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Perevolotskaya, T.V., Perevolotsky, A.N. & Geras’kin, S.A. Retrospective Assessment of the Formation of the Radiation Situation in Pine Plantations in the First Year after the Chernobyl Accident. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 49, 2378–2389 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359022120184

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