Accounting for short-term increased airborne discharges in the limitation of discharges of radioactive substances into the atmospheric air

Accounting for short-term increased airborne discharges in the limitation of discharges of radioactive substances into the atmospheric air.

Kuryndin A. V., Shapovalov A. S., Ivanov E. A., Timofeev N. B., Polyakov R. M.

The modern paradigm of limitation of airborne discharges of radioactive substances considers sources of airborne discharges as continuous, with characteristics that remain virtually unchanged throughout the year. In practice, at some nuclear facilities, in addition to continuous airborne discharges, one or even several cases of short-term increased airborne discharges may occur at certain periods of time during the year (for example, when a reactor is shut down and then decompressed for repairs and/or reloading a nuclear fuel). The admissibility of such airborne discharges of radioactive substances within the accepted paradigm is not obvious. This article proposes and substantiates the definition of а “short-term increased airborne discharge” in relation to the problem being solved and formulates the necessary and sufficient conditions to ensure that short-term airborne discharges are considered when establishing the authorized limits of airborne discharges of radioactive substances. An approach to accounting for short-term increased airborne discharges by properly adjusting the continuous annual airborne discharges is proposed.

► Keywords: radioactive substances, airborne discharges of radioactive substances, short-time increased airborne discharges of radioactive substances, continuous airborne discharges of radioactive substances, authorized limits of airborne discharges of radioactive substances, atmospheric air.

Article language: Russian. Pp. 67–79. [in Russian]. DOI: 10.26277/SECNRS.2024.114.4.005.