Byelorussia

Knatko VA, Mayall A, Drugachenok MA, et al. 1993. Radiation doses in southern Byelorussia from the inhalation of specific radionuclides following the Chernobyl accident. Radiat Prot Dosim 48(2) 179-183. 

The anthropogenic radionuclides of most concern are those produced as fission products from nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. The most devastating release from the latter source to date resulted from the April 26, 1986, explosion, partial meltdown of the reactor core, and breach of confinement structures by a power reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. This disaster released 5 x 107 Ci of radionuclides from the site, which contaminated large areas of Soviet Ukraine and Byelorussia, as well as areas of Scandinavia, Italy, France, Poland, Turkey, and Greece. Radioactive fission products that are the same or similar to elements involved in life processes can be particularly hazardous. One of these is radioactive iodine, which tends to accumulate in the thyroid gland, which may develop cancer or otherwise be damaged as a result. Radioactive cesium exists as the Cs+ ion and is similar to sodium and potassium in its physiological behavior. Radioactive strontium forms the Sr2+ ion and substitutes for Ca2+, especially in bone. 

S.S. Pesetskii, N.D. Polosmak, N.L. Malinin, N.V. Koval, Byelorussia Soviet Socialistic Republic Academy of Science Reports (in Russian), 1990, 34, 616. 

In Byelorussia the early Proterozoic crystalline basement, represented by biotite-granite-gneisses, migmatites, micaceous slates and quartzites with acid intrusions and (gabbro-)diabase dikes, is concealed beneath Quaternary fluvio-glacial sediments 30-150 m thick. Beryllium mineralisation, the product of regional and local metasomatism, occurs in the concealed basement. The Be data of a CHIM survey expressed very well the ore body known from boreholes 1 and 2 and revealed a further anomaly. Drilling of boreholes 3 and 4 on this anomaly confirmed the existence of a previously-unknown ore body (Fig. 2-24). 

Fig. 2-24. Results obtained by the CHIM method over beryllium mineralisation in Byelorussia (A) plan of beryllium anomaly, and (B) distribution of beryllium along profile and schematie geological section 1- sands, clays 2- diabases 3- granites 4- tectonic disjunctions 5- ore bodies 6- zones of mineralisation (reproduced with permission from Bensman et al., 1982).

Fig. 2-26. Results obtained by the CHIM method over an oil deposit in Byelorussia and schematic geological section 1- Permian-Cretaceous-Quatemary clays, sands, coals 2- marly siliceous clay formations 3- Carboniferous sand-clay formations 4- middle-late Devonian sandstones, aleurolites, marls 5- oil deposit (reproduced with permission from Ryss et al., 1990).

Komarov, V. S. Adsorption-Structural, Physico-Chemical and Catalytic Characteristics of Clays of Byelorussia Nauka i Tekhnika Minsk, 1970. 

During the following week the people in Chernobyl and all the villages in the area within a distance of 30 km from the plant (the 30 km zone — Fig. 5.3) were evacuated from their homes. People from towns in the neighbouring state of Byelorussia were also affected in all a total of 135000 people were evacuated to relocation centres set up in the principal cities nearest the site. The delayed evacuation of the population in the vicinity of the NPS is understood to have been in accordance with the official Soviet evacuation plans, which closely followed the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).3... 

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