Releases of Radionuclides to Surface Waters at Krasnoyarsk-26 and Tomsk-7

Waters, R., Compton, K.L., Novikov, V., & Parker, F. (1999). Releases of Radionuclides to Surface Waters at Krasnoyarsk-26 and Tomsk-7. IIASA Research Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: RR-99-003

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Abstract

During the Cold War, production and testing of nuclear weapons in the United States and the Soviet Union led to major releases of radioactive materials into the environment. Although large studies have begun to clarify the magnitude and impact of releases in the United States, only since Perestroika has information become available to begin an evaluation of the significance of releases into the environment in the former Soviet Union (FSU). The Radiation Safety of the Biosphere (RAD) Project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), begun in 1995, is currently evaluating the radiation legacy of the nuclear weapons complex in the FSU. Because the three sites of Chelyabinsk-65 (Mayak Production Association - MPA), Tomsk-7 (Siberian Chemical Combine - SCC), and Krasnoyarsk-26 (Mining and Chemical Combine - MCC) account for the vast majority of the radioactive materials released into the environment in the FSU, these sites are the focus of RAD's studies. Contamination of such sites has resulted from normal and emergency atmospheric releases (such as the 1993 tank explosion at Tomsk-7), discharge of radioactively contaminated waste and cooling waters into rivers, spills and leaks, and deep-well injection disposal of liquid radioactive waste. This study is limited to the impact of past discharges of radioactive materials to the Yanisei River at the MCC and the Tom River at the SCC. Future studies are planned to assess the significance of deep-well injection of wastes at the MCC.

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