Assessment of radiation doses to aquatic organismʹs in the chernobyl contaminated area

Internal and external radiation exposures of aquatic organisms (algae, molluscs, fish) are estimated over the affected Chernobyl area. The estimates are made based on experimental data about radionuclide content in components of aquatic ecosystems of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) cooling pond, the Dnieper watershed rivers and the Dnieper reservoirs. To reconstruct and predict the radiation doses a mathematical model of an aquatic ecosystem was proposed, which was verified with monitoring data. The model describes dynamic processes of radionuclide migration and accumulation with allowance for ecological factors which are explicitly included in the model equations. The highest irradiation was shown to occur in benthic organisms of the nearest zone around the Chernobyl NPP. For most water reservoirs outside the Chernobyl NPP area, irradiation levels of aquatic organisms do not go beyond the limits of ‘small doses’.