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RADIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN THE DNIEPER RIVER BASIN Assessment by an international expert team and recommendations for an action plan The following States are Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency: AFGHANISTAN GREECE PARAGUAY ALBANIA GUATEMALA PERU ALGERIA HAITI PHILIPPINES ANGOLA HOLY SEE POLAND HONDURAS ARGENTINA PORTUGAL HUNGARY ARMENIA QATAR AUSTRALIA ICELAND REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AUSTRIA INDIA ROMANIA AZERBAIJAN INDONESIA RUSSIAN FEDERATION BANGLADESH IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF SAUDI ARABIA BELARUS IRAQ BELGIUM IRELAND SENEGAL BENIN ISRAEL SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO BOLIVIA ITALY SEYCHELLES BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JAMAICA SIERRA LEONE BOTSWANA JAPAN SINGAPORE BRAZIL JORDAN SLOVAKIA KAZAKHSTAN BULGARIA SLOVENIA KENYA BURKINA FASO SOUTH AFRICA KOREA, REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON SPAIN KUWAIT CANADA KYRGYZSTAN SRI LANKA CENTRAL AFRICAN LATVIA SUDAN REPUBLIC LEBANON SWEDEN CHAD LIBERIA SWITZERLAND CHILE LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC CHINA LIECHTENSTEIN TAJIKISTAN COLOMBIA LITHUANIA COSTA RICA THAILAND LUXEMBOURG CÔTE D’IVOIRE THE FORMER YUGOSLAV MADAGASCAR CROATIA REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA MALAYSIA CUBA TUNISIA MALI CYPRUS TURKEY MALTA CZECH REPUBLIC MARSHALL ISLANDS UGANDA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC MAURITANIA UKRAINE OF THE CONGO MAURITIUS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DENMARK MEXICO UNITED KINGDOM OF DOMINICAN REPUBLIC MONACO GREAT BRITAIN AND ECUADOR MONGOLIA NORTHERN IRELAND EGYPT MOROCCO UNITED REPUBLIC EL SALVADOR MYANMAR OF TANZANIA ERITREA NAMIBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ESTONIA NETHERLANDS URUGUAY ETHIOPIA NEW ZEALAND UZBEKISTAN FINLAND NICARAGUA VENEZUELA FRANCE NIGER GABON NIGERIA VIETNAM GEORGIA NORWAY YEMEN GERMANY PAKISTAN ZAMBIA GHANA PANAMA ZIMBABWE The Agency’s Statute was approved on 23 October 1956 by the Conference on the Statute of the IAEA held at United Nations Headquarters, New York; it entered into force on 29 July 1957. The Headquarters of the Agency are situated in Vienna. Its principal objective is “to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world’’. RADIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT REPORTS SERIES RADIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS IN THE DNIEPER RIVER BASIN Assessment by an international expert team and recommendations for an action plan INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY VIENNA, 2006 COPYRIGHT NOTICE All IAEA scientific and technical publications are protected by the terms of the Universal Copyright Convention as adopted in 1952 (Berne) and as revised in 1972 (Paris). The copyright has since been extended by the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) to include electronic and virtual intellectual property. Permission to use whole or parts of texts contained in IAEA publications in printed or electronic form must be obtained and is usually subject to royalty agreements. Proposals for non-commercial reproductions and translations are welcomed and will be considered on a case by case basis. Enquiries should be addressed by email to the Publishing Section, IAEA, at [email protected] or by post to: Sales and Promotion Unit, Publishing Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramer Strasse 5 P. O. B o x 1 0 0 A-1400 Vienna Austria fax: +43 1 2600 29302 tel.: +43 1 2600 22417 http://www.iaea.org/books © IAEA, 2006 Printed by the IAEA in Austria April 2006 STI/PUB/1230 IAEA Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Radiological conditions in the Dnieper River basin : assessment by an international expert team and recommendations for an action plan. — Vienna : International Atomic Energy Agency, 2006. p. ; 29 cm. — (Radiological assessment reports series, ISSN 1020–6566) STI/DOC/1230 ISBN 92–0–104905–6 Includes bibliographical references. 1. Radioactive pollution — Dnieper Basin (Ukraine). 2. Radioactive pollution — Ukraine — Chornobyl. 3. Radioactive waste sites — Cleanup. I. International Atomic Energy Agency. II. Series. IAEAL 06–00423 FOREWORD Various locations around the world have been affected by radioactive residues, sometimes from peaceful activities, such as the mining and milling of uranium ores, and sometimes from military activities, such as nuclear weapon testing. In some cases, governments have considered it to be socially and politically desirable to obtain independent expert opinions on the radiological conditions caused by the residues. As a result, the IAEA has been requested by the governments of a number of Member States to provide assistance in this context. The assistance has been provided by the IAEA under its statutory obligation “to establish… standards of safety for protection of health… and to provide for the application of these standards… at the request of a State”. In 1986, in the Dnieper River basin, a densely populated area in the middle of eastern Europe, the most severe nuclear accident in human history happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The accident destroyed a high power nuclear reactor and resulted in the release of large amounts of radionuclides into the environment. In other areas of Ukraine adjacent to the middle reaches of the Dnieper River, uranium mining and milling facilities have been in operation since 1948, which have left substantial tailings containing naturally occurring radioactive material. These events resulted in the contamination of substantial areas with radioactive residues, and some associated health effects. More questions arose regarding the possible radiological consequences of the radioactive residues for local populations and the environment, and the governments of the affected States were obliged to respond. After the Ministers of the Environment of the three riparian countries (i.e. Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine) expressed in June 1996 their intention to develop an international programme for the environmental rehabilitation of the Dnieper River basin, the first transboundary diagnostic analysis (TDA) was developed in 1997. In assessing the Dnieper River basin, the United Nations Development Programme — Global Environment Facility (UNDP–GEF) identified radioactive contamination as one of the significant issues. Subsequently, the IAEA was requested to contribute its expertise in radiation and environmental protection to a more detailed analysis involving a revision of the TDA and preparation of a strategic action plan. The present project was started in 2001 within the framework of the Dnieper Basin Environmental Programme (DBEP) under the UNDP–GEF. The project was executed by the IAEA as Regional Technical Cooperation Project RER/9/072, Preparation