Problems of Radiation Medicine and Radiobiology

M. M. Talerko¹, T. D. Lev¹, V. V. Drozdovitch², S. V. Masiuk³

¹Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,   12 Lysogirska St., Kyiv, 03028, Ukraine
²Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, 9609 Medical   Center Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
³State Institution «National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of the National Academy of Medical   Sciences of Ukraine», 53 Yuriia Illienka St., Kyiv, 04050, Ukraine

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION OF THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE BY IODINE-131 DURING INITIAL PERIOD OF THE CHORNOBYL ACCIDENT USING THE RESULTS FROM NUMERICAL MODEL WRF

Objective. To reconstruct the ¹³¹I activity concentrations in air and ¹³¹I ground deposition densities from 26 April to 7 May 1986 from the radioactivity release after the Chornobyl accident in the settlements of Ukraine using the mesoscale radionuclides atmospheric transport model LEDI and meteorological information from the numerical weather forecast model WRF and to compare the obtained results with those calculated previously as well as with available measurements of ¹³¹I activity in soil.
Object of research: the near-ground layer of the atmosphere and the surface of the territory of Ukraine radioactively contaminated as a result of the Chornobyl accident.
Materials and methods of research. The dispersion of ¹³¹I in the atmosphere and deposition on the ground surface in Ukraine were calculated using the Lagrangian-Eulerian diffusion model LEDI. The detailed fields of meteorological parameters calculated using the mesoscale weather forecast model WRF, which was adapted for the territory of Ukraine, were used as input data for the LEDI model.
Results. The ¹³¹I daily-average activity concentrations in the surface air and ¹³¹I daily ground deposition densities from 26 April to 7 May 1986 were calculated using the up-to-date mesoscale model of numerical weather forecast WRF for 30,352 settlements in entire Ukraine, including 1,263 settlements in Kyiv, 1,717 – in Zhytomyr and 1,570 – in Chernihiv Oblasts.
Conclusions. The method of mathematical modeling of the atmospheric transport of the radionuclides is combination with the up-to-date mesoscale model of numerical weather forecast WRF is a useful tool for reconstruction of radioactive contamination of the air and the ground surface after the Chornobyl accident. Calculated in this study ¹³¹I activity concentrations in air and ¹³¹I ground deposition densities were used to reconstruct the thyroid doses due to ¹³¹I intake to the population of Ukraine.
Key words: Chornobyl accident, Iodine-131, atmospheric transport model.

Problems of Radiation Medicine and Radiobiology.
2020;25:285-299. doi: 10.33145/2304-8336-2020-25-285-299

full text

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