Abstract
The uncontrolled release of long-lived radioactive substances from nuclear accidents can contaminate inhabited land areas. The removal of topsoil is an important method for reducing future radiation exposure but can also generate a large amount of waste that needs safe disposal. To the best of our knowledge, previous studies have determined the optimal depth of topsoil removal but not the size of the area designated for this measure. For this purpose, this study performed Monte Carlo simulations of hypothetical 137Cs surface contamination on various ground areas in a typical northern European suburban area. The goal was to study the size of the areas needed and amount of waste generated to achieve a certain relative and absolute dose reduction. The results showed that removing the topsoil from areas larger than 3000 m2 around the houses in the study neighbourhood results in only marginal reduction in radiation exposure. If, on average, 5 cm of topsoil is removed over 3000 m2, then 150 m3 of waste would be generated. However, in this scenario adjacent properties benefit from each other’s decontamination, leading to a smaller amount of waste for a given reduction in future radiation exposure per inhabitant of these dwellings. Additionally, it was shown that topsoil removal over limited areas has a higher impact on the absolute dose reduction at an observation point inside or outside the houses with higher initial dose.
Highlights
The uncontrolled release of long-lived radioactive substances from nuclear accidents can contaminate inhabited land areas
Graphs describing the amount of waste generated by topsoil removal in relation to the relative dose reduction are presented for the 11 indoor observation points
The resulting graphs show that waste generation of more than 150 m3, which equals the removal of 5 cm of topsoil over an area of 3000 m2, results in very little additional dose reduction, whereas the achievable relative dose reduction with reasonable amounts of generated waste is highly dependent on the observation point and varies between 55 and 90%
Summary
The uncontrolled release of long-lived radioactive substances from nuclear accidents can contaminate inhabited land areas. As far as we know, no studies have examned the optimal size for this decontamination measure based on reducing future radiation exposure and minimizing the amount of generated waste. For this reason, our previous study developed the isodose c oncept[5], which determines the dose contributions for various locations from progressively increasing contaminated surfaces. The aim of this study is to find optimum sizes of areas for topsoil removal around northern European single-family houses with respect to the reduction of future radiation exposure and waste generation; we seek to minimize monetary costs and the adverse effects on the environment
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