Inhalation dose assessment for public and firefighters in case of forest fires in the exclusion zone contaminated after the Chernobyl catastrophe

Abstract

The article presents the results of assessment of inhalation doses to public and firefighters as a result of forest fires at the territory contaminated with Chernobyl radionuclides. To predict the consequences of fires, a retrospective assessment of fires occurred in the territories contaminated after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power and in the Polessky State Radiation and Ecological Reserve (hereinafter - the PSRER). The worst case scenarios for the fires that occurred in 2015 in the exclusion zone of the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine, as well as the fire that occurred in April 2020 in Ukraine, were selected. As a result of the assessment, it was found that inhalation doses to public of the settlements that are closest to PSRER and close to the border with Ukraine are insignificant and about to 0.4 μSv/day, which cannot be said about inhalation doses to firefighters - 15 μSv/day. However, despite that the doses do not exceed the emergency response criteria, the assessment and accounting of doses to public during forest fires should be carried out in order to assess the risk to public health and to inform the public.