Hiller M M, Woda C, Bougrov N G, Degteva M O, Ivanov O, Ulanovsky A, Romanov S
Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Institute of Radiation Protection, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine, Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Radiat Environ Biophys. 2017 May;56(2):139-159. doi: 10.1007/s00411-017-0688-3. Epub 2017 Apr 3.
In the first years of its operation, the Mayak Production Association, a facility part of the Soviet nuclear weapons program in the Southern Urals, Russia, discharged large amounts of radioactively contaminated effluent into the nearby Techa River, thus exposing the people living at this river to external and internal radiations. The Techa River Cohort is a cohort intensely studied in epidemiology to investigate the correlation between low-dose radiation and health effects on humans. For the individuals in the cohort, the Techa River Dosimetry System describes the accumulated dose in human organs and tissues. In particular, organ doses from external exposure are derived from estimates of dose rate in air on the Techa River banks which were estimated from measurements and Monte Carlo modelling. Individual doses are calculated in accordance with historical records of individuals' residence histories, observational data of typical lifestyles for different age groups, and age-dependent conversion factors from air kerma to organ dose. The work here describes an experimentally independent assessment of the key input parameter of the dosimetry system, the integral air kerma, for the former village of Metlino, upper Techa River region. The aim of this work was thus to validate the Techa River Dosimetry System for the location of Metlino in an independent approach. Dose reconstruction based on dose measurements in bricks from a church tower and Monte Carlo calculations was used to model the historic air kerma accumulated in the time from 1949 to 1956 at the shoreline of the Techa River in Metlino. Main issues are caused by a change in the landscape after the evacuation of the village in 1956. Based on measurements and published information and data, two separate models for the historic pre-evacuation geometry and for the current geometry of Metlino were created. Using both models, a value for the air kerma was reconstructed, which agrees with that obtained in the Techa River Dosimetry System within a factor of two.
在其运营的最初几年，玛雅克生产协会是苏联位于俄罗斯南乌拉尔地区的核武器计划的一部分，该工厂将大量放射性污染废水排放到附近的捷恰河中，从而使居住在该河流域的人们受到外部和内部辐射。捷恰河队列是流行病学中深入研究的一个队列，用于调查低剂量辐射与对人类健康影响之间的相关性。对于该队列中的个体，捷恰河剂量测定系统描述了人体器官和组织中的累积剂量。特别是，外部照射的器官剂量是根据捷恰河岸空气中剂量率的估计得出的，这些估计是通过测量和蒙特卡罗建模得到的。个体剂量是根据个体居住历史的历史记录、不同年龄组典型生活方式的观测数据以及从空气比释动能到器官剂量的年龄依赖性转换因子来计算的。本文描述了对剂量测定系统的关键输入参数——积分空气比释动能进行实验独立评估的过程，该评估针对的是捷恰河上游地区的梅特利诺村旧址。因此，这项工作的目的是以独立的方式验证梅特利诺村所在地的捷恰河剂量测定系统。基于教堂塔楼砖块中的剂量测量和蒙特卡罗计算进行的剂量重建，被用于模拟1949年至1956年期间梅特利诺村捷恰河岸边累积的历史空气比释动能。主要问题是由1956年村庄撤离后景观的变化引起的。基于测量以及已发表的信息和数据，创建了两个分别用于梅特利诺村撤离前历史几何形状和当前几何形状的模型。使用这两个模型重建了空气比释动能的值，该值与捷恰河剂量测定系统中获得的值相差在两倍以内。
