Aspects of environmental monitoring by British nuclear fuels plc following the chernobyl reactor accident

Abstract

The radioactive cloud from the Chernobyl reactor accident arrived in West Cumbria on 2 May 1986. The environmental monitoring facilities of the British Nuclear Fuels plc, Sellafield reprocessing plant were used to monitor radioactivity in air, deposition on grass and on soil and concentrations in milk. The distribution of deposition between sampled grass and soil was affected by heavy rainfall during the passage of the radioactive cloud. Measurements of radioactivity in milk at a lowland farm on the coastal plain resulted in a critical group effective dose of 0·64 mSv up to the end of July, but additional doses are expected to result from the use of silage during the winter. Comparisons are made between these doses from milk consumption and those predicted from the data available shortly after the deposition of the radioactivity on the pasture.