The explosion of Reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl on 26 April 1986 profoundly affected the world outside. News of the accident was not immediately given but reports of radioactive fallout came quickly from neighbouring countries, and action was taken to prevent contaminated food from being consumed. Some of the emergency measures had serious social and economic consequences which could have been mitigated with better information. This study has brought together the results of an international study on the ways in which radioactive materials released by human activities spread in the environment, but stops short of considering health effects. These are the concern of bodies such as the United Nations Commission on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), which evaluate the contribution received by humans.
This report is addressed to a wide community of scientists and others who study the environment. The Chernobyl accident had a positive aspect in providing experimental evidence which would not have been available otherwise. The direct scientific interest is important but the project has also been more widely followed. The universal interest in the environment needs to be fed with information if limited resources are to be used economically or difficult choices made. One of these is between burning fossil fuel with the effect on climate or using nuclear power with the possibility of an accidental release of radioactivity. There is also the risk of release from a nuclear weapon. The knowledge presented here should help in assessing what can be done to reduce effects on the environment or humanity.
The study of pathways included is based on radionuclides from the bomb tests, accidents and releases from re-processing. Contributions are made from other sources, such as fossil fuels, minerals, building materials and soils as well. These are pervasive and have not provided the identification available from individual locations.
The RADPATH study began in Moscow during a workshop in March 1988 to bring up-to-date the forecasts of environmental consequences of nuclear war (ENUWAR) made in SCOPE 28, a two-volume report from the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment of ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions). A special session considered the improved models of movement in the atmosphere and their validation by measurements made on Chernobyl fallout. The opportunity was taken to visit the stricken reactor, the abandoned town of Pripyat and the surrounding country and marshes. At the SCOPE General Assembly in Budapest during June 1988, a proposal to begin this study was agreed with a request for the ENUWAR Unit at Essex University to carry it out.
A planning meeting later in 1988 at the Royal Society in London appointed a Steering Committee of experts who have organized a series of workshops and preparation of this report. It also identified other sources by which radionuclides are dispersed, such as nuclear weapons tests, accidents as at Windscale, Kyshtym and Three Mile Island and other escapes from the nuclear fuel cycle.
Three principal workshops were held in the UK
University of Essex, 1988 and 1991, and University of Lancaster, 1990. The latter afforded the opportunity to visit the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at
Sellafield. Other meetings with RADPATH participation were held in the USSR (Suzdal 1989, Gomel 1990, Zeleny Mys 1990 and Pushchino 1991), in Luxembourg 1990 through the International Union of Radioecologists and with
BIOMOVS, Sweden 1990.
These meetings provided information from scientists with access to official sources of information as well as from academic and research institutions, but the non-governmental aspect of SCOPE work has been maintained. The contributions made by the International Union of Radioecologists and the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry have been considerable. The individuals who have given their time are identified, with their affiliations, in this report. There are problems in achieving consistency in the units used, especially curies and becquerels, because of old habits. The international collaboration made it impossible to impose uniformity.
Over the three years of RADPATH, the work of the Essex University Unit including the publication of Newsletters has been supported financially by grants from organizations which have also assisted the attendance of scientists at workshops and provided the facilities. They include the Royal Society of London, Commission of the European Communities, Fellowship of Engineering, the Leverhulme Trust, Wolfson Foundation and the Sigmund Sternberg Charitable Foundation. They have allowed Dr. Appleby to make a full-time contribution to all the RADPATH activities which has been invaluable.
Sir Frederick Warner, University of Essex, UK. Chairman
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