Radionuclide Composition of NPP Gas Emissions and Population Radiation Dose Assessment

• Published in: Atomic energy (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2021-09, Vol.130 (5), p.304-309
• Main Authors: Kryshev, A. I., Sazykina, T. G., Vasyanovich, M. E., Ekidin, A. A., Kapustin, I. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Argon; Composition; Emissions; Energy industry; Gases; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Industrial plant emissions; Isotopes; Krypton; Measurement; Nuclear Chemistry; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Physics; Nuclear power plants; Nuclear reactors; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Radiation; Radiation dosage; Radioactive emissions; Radioisotopes; RBMK; Reactors; Xenon
• ISSN: 1063-4258; 1573-8205
• DOI: 10.1007/s10512-021-00814-8

An assessment, based on data from a radiation-technical survey, is made of the radionuclide composition of the inert radioactive gases released from NPP with RBMK and VVER reactors. The annual population radiation dose from emissions of inert radioactive gases from nuclear power plants is equal to 0.04–1.3 μSv/yr, which is significantly lower than the minimum significant dose 10 μSv/yr. The relative contribution of individual isotopes to the annual dose differs even for NPP with the same type of reactor plant. The annual dose is almost entirely due to external radiation from a radioactive cloud; the contribution of internal radiation does not exceed 0.1–0.2%. In the sanitary regulations it makes sense to exclude the limitation of the permissible total annual emission of inert radioactive gases from NPP. The calculation of the maximum permissible emissions for the radioactive isotopes of argon, krypton, and xenon, just as for other radionuclides, must be made so as not to exceed the established dose limit.