Assessment of radiation environmental risk for the terrestrial ecosystem

Abstract

In this work there is a detailed methodology for the assessment of the radiological ecological risk at the ecosystem level based on critical loads. Risk assessment consists of the following stages: hazard identification, identification of reference species and indicators, determination and analysis of critical loads on the basis of the dose-effect relationship, environmental risk assessment and analysis of risk functions. The experimental site is the territory, which has been exposed to radioactive contamination as a result of depressurization of the storage capacity of radioactive waste. On the basis of long-term (2010 - 2015) monitoring works, the input parameters for risk assessment were determined: the recipient of the impact is the terrestrial ecosystem; in the study of chemical and radioactive contamination of the territory, an environmental hazard factor was identified - Sr-90; the reference species - the mollusk Fruticola fruticum and reference indicators - the coefficient of accumulation of the Sr-90 of shells from the nettle and catalase enzymatic activity of soils. It was determined the acceptability of radiation risk for the terrestrial ecosystem on the basis of critical loads on the catalase activity of soils and unacceptability when accounting the coefficient of accumulation of Sr-90.