ANALYSIS OF THE SAFETY OF THE BURIAL GROUNDS OF DECONTAMINATION WASTE OF CHERNOBYL ORIGIN IN THE TERRITORY OF BELARUS
V. V. Skurat, N. M. Shiryaeva, N. K. Myshkina, A. A. Gvozdev, G. Z. Serebryanyi, and N. B. Golikova UDC 504.064.36:621.039.76 Unsatisfactory conditions of storage of decontamination waste (DW) in the storages formed in the territory of Belarus after the Chernobyl accident require the evaluation of the level of protection of the environment and population. The potential hazard of the decontamination waste burial grounds (DWBGs) has been evaluated based on the use of a generalized multichamber model that was verified by comparing the calculation results and the results obtained by the American (GW SCREEN) model. The characteristics of the 24 largest and most hazardous DWBGs are given and the evaluations of their safety are presented. The zones of influence of these storages, whose size varies from 100 to 330 m, have been determined. The reliability of the prediction evaluation of a possible hazardous radioactive contamination of water near the storages has been verified using the Dudichi DWBG as an example Institute of Radioenvironmental Problems, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus; email: air@sosny.das-net.by. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 75, No. 5, pp. 158-164, September-October, 2002. Original article submitted January 23, 2002. JEPTER7492020021 JEPTER749201