Abstract
Abstract. The dataset “Spatial datasets of radionuclide contamination in the Ukrainian Chernobyl Exclusion Zone” was developed to enable data collected between May 1986 (immediately after Chernobyl) and 2014 by the Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology (UIAR) after the Chernobyl accident to be made publicly available. The dataset includes results from comprehensive soil sampling across the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ). Analyses include radiocaesium (134Cs and 134Cs) 90Sr, 154Eu and soil property data; plutonium isotope activity concentrations in soil (including distribution in the soil profile); analyses of “hot” (or fuel) particles from the CEZ (data from Poland and across Europe are also included); and results of monitoring in the Ivankov district, a region adjacent to the exclusion zone. The purpose of this paper is to describe the available data and methodology used to obtain them. The data will be valuable to those conducting studies within the CEZ in a number of ways, for instance (i) for helping to perform robust exposure estimates to wildlife, (ii) for predicting comparative activity concentrations of different key radionuclides, (iii) for providing a baseline against which future surveys in the CEZ can be compared, (iv) as a source of information on the behaviour of fuel particles (FPs), (v) for performing retrospective dose assessments and (vi) for assessing natural background dose rates in the CEZ. The CEZ has been proposed as a “radioecological observatory” (i.e. a radioactively contaminated site that will provide a focus for long-term, radioecological collaborative international research). Key to the future success of this concept is open access to data for the CEZ. The data presented here are a first step in this process. The data and supporting documentation are freely available from the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) under the terms and conditions of the Open Government Licence: https://doi.org/10.5285/782ec845-2135-4698-8881-b38823e533bf.
Highlights
The accident in reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP), Ukraine, on 26 April 1986 remains the worst in the history of nuclear power generation
Starting on 27 April the human population and farm animals were evacuated from an area of approximately 3500 km2 to create what has become known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ)
The CEZ was suggested as a radioecological observatory; i.e. a radioactively contaminated site that will provide a focus for joint, long-term, radioecological research which will help address challenges identified for the field of radioecology (Hinton et al, 2013)
Summary
The accident in reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP), Ukraine, on 26 April 1986 remains the worst in the history of nuclear power generation. The CEZ was suggested as a radioecological observatory (http://www.radioecology-exchange.org/ content/radioecological-observatories; Steiner et al, 2013); i.e. a radioactively contaminated site that will provide a focus for joint, long-term, radioecological research which will help address challenges identified for the field of radioecology (Hinton et al, 2013) For this to be successful, relevant data for the CEZ need to be made openly available; the deficiency of open data has been highlighted as one of the causes for the lack of scientific consensus with regard to published studies from within the CEZ and more recently areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima accident (Beresford et al, 2012a, b; Barnett and Welch, 2016). Reported activity concentrations for all datasets discussed are presented for the date of measurement which is provided in the accompanying datasets
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