PREFACE

The radioactive contamination of the biosphere resulted from the 50 years of programs of nuclear weapons production and testing, operation of enterprises of nuclear power engineering and industry, military and civil nuclear powered ships, as well as nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes, is today one of the most serious global environmental problems.

The "nuclear club" countries, first of all, ex-USSR and USA, have been the main contributors to the radioactive contamination of biosphere. In the ex-USSR, due to nuclear weapons production and testing, large scale radiation accidents (Kyshtym-1957, Chernobyl-1986 etc), dumping of liquid radioactive wastes and disposal of solid radioactive wastes into seas, which wash the country’s coasts, a significant amount of radioactive substances has entered into the environment. Owing to that some areas of ex-USSR are contaminated by radionuclides beyond permissible standards. Remediation of these territories is necessary.

Radioactive wastes and spent nuclear materials, which have been accumulated as a result of the past and present activities are managed in a way that does not completely meet the modern specifications of securing radiation safety. They present today a potential hazard for biosphere.

At the same time the termination of "cold" war period promoted significant openness of data, concerning the state of those problems, and caused quite grounded anxiety of public opinion of Russia and countries of the world community for the state of nuclear safety in some regions of Russia and CIS countries, possibility of transboundary transfer of radioactive substances (as a result of accidents) to the territories of neighboring states and into the biosphere as a whole.

Taking that into account, as well as the broadening of international cooperation in the field of overcoming radiation consequences of the "cold" war, it seems important to have the most complete and trustworthy knowledge of the present state of radiation hazardous objects at the territory of ex-USSR and, first of all, of Russia to establish priorities for carrying out works and international cooperation.

That is why the evaluation of radiation legacy of ex-USSR, created using modern information technologies of a computerized system of collecting, storage and processing of data for accounting and analysis of accessible data on presence, origin, physical and chemical characteristics, accommodation of radioactive wastes and materials at the territories of Russia and other CIS countries is an extremely urgent task.

The problem is being solved in the framework of the International Science and Technology Center Project # 245 "RADLEG" and Russian Federal Program "Radioactive wastes and spent nuclear materials management, utilization and disposal for 1996 - 2005.

The aim of the "RADLEG" Project is establishment of publicly accessible database connected with a geographical information system (GIS), presenting available data on radiation legacy of the former USSR. This will be used in radiation risk estimation and to establish priorities at working out recommendations to management bodies and persons making decisions, concerning the safety of population in various regions of the country, financing measures for social protection of citizens, and decontamination and environmental restoration of contaminated lands.

The Project is planned to be realized in two phases:

Phase 1: creation of a simple operational database, capable of connection to GIS and presenting data available now on the radiation legacy of the former USSR.

Phase 2: creation of a publicly accessible prototype data system, including the database on radiation legacy of the former USSR linked to GIS.

Specialists of about 20 Russia’s organizations have taken part in carrying out works of the Project.

The analytical overview was done at an initial stage of the Project and includes reviews of available data on the main sectors of investigations (groups of objects - sources of radiation hazard).

Each individual review was supposed to include the following information:

• data on radioactive wastes and nuclear materials;
• estimation of completeness of the data;
• presence of so far inaccessible data;
• existing databases on nuclear materials and radioactive wastes;
• coordination with other organizations and sectors of investigation;
• characteristics of main accumulations of radioactive materials in a given group of objects (origin, siting, activity level estimates, filling of storages, age of storages);
• essential problems affecting the environment;
• on methods of nuclear materials and radioactive wastes management;
• requirements for the integrated information system;
• the aims of using the data and the present system;
• bibliography (key publications) on the problem.

At the same time, taking into account the complexity of the problem, oddness and in some cases inaccessibility of important data, as well as inconsistency of data published in different information sources, it was not possible to present adequate, either in volume, or in content, information in all the individual reviews.

Numeric data related to jbjects located at the territory of Russian Federation are given, mainly, as of 01.01.97 (or 01.01.96), and for objects in other independent states of the former USSR - as of 01.01.91 (or 01.01.90) because of lack of officially available information for the later period of time.

The overview may be considered as a basis for further making the information on individual objects and, first of all, those ones, which present a particular radiation hazard for biosphere, more accurate and systematizing it on a unified methodological foundation.