Comparative Radioecological Assessment of Serious-Accident Scenarios in NPP on the Basis of the Risk for Natural Communities

Abstract

The objective of this work is to develop an approach to evaluating the effect of the radiation factor on biota for radioecological comparison of scenarios of serious beyond-design basis accidents in NPP. The tree tier of a coniferous (pine) forest exposed to atmospheric precipitation and possessing high sensitivity to radiation is studied as a representative natural community. The indices of the radiation effect are the radioecological risks calculated taking account of the distribution of the dose load on the natural object. The risks of exceeding the lethal and semi-lethal radiation doses, as well as the area of the radioactive track for postulated scenarios of beyond-design basis accidents at BWR-1412, EPR-1600, and PWR-890 reactors, are evaluated. Based on the calculation, a radioecological ranking of the considered emergency scenarios was performed.