Recent Research Activities about the Chernobyl NPP Accident
in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia
Preface
Sixteen years have already passed since the Chernobyl accident, the worst accident in thehistory of nuclear energy development occurred in the former USSR on April 26, 1986. During
these years a large amount of reports, papers and materials have been published about this accident.
There remain, however, many questions that were not yet answered and should be answered byfuture researches.
Our group, Nuclear Safety Research Group of Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University
has been involved in the task to assess the radiological consequences in case of large nuclear
accidents in Japan from 1970s. So our efforts to study the consequences by the Chernobyl accident
began from the next days after the accident.
During the first years after the accident, the information on Chernobyl was very limited. The
detailed situation about the radioactive contamination within the USSR territory at first appeared in
1989 with growing democratic movement in USSR. The break of USSR at the end of 1991
drastically changed the situation around Chernobyl problems. In 1993 our group had a chance tocollaborate with Belarusian scientists under a support from the Toyota foundation. Thiscollaboration was extended to a larger one in 1995-1997, getting cooperation with Ukrainian andRussian scientists. Our former Chernobyl report, “Research Activities about the RadiologicalConsequences of the Chernobyl NPS Accident and Social Activities to Assist the Sufferers by theAccident” (KURRI-KR-21, March 1998) was produced as a result of these programs.
Under the title, “Investigation of Research Activities about the Chernobyl NPP Accident inBelarus, Ukraine and Russia”, we succeeded to get a new financial support for 2000 – 2002 fromGrant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of Japan Society for Promotion of Science (1.7, 2.0 and 1.9
million yen in 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively). Compilation of a new Chernobyl report is one of
the main tasks in the new program. This report contains 22 articles by Belarusian, Ukrainian andRussian scientists and one article by Imanaka.
The editor is sure that the contents of this report are useful not only to specialists, but also toall persons who have concern for the problem of Chernobyl. He is grateful to colleagues of Nuclear
Safety Research Group for their continuous encouragements and to staffs of Research Reactor
Institute, Kyoto University for various conveniences during the course of the present study.
Imanaka T.
Research Reactor Institute,Kyoto University
July 2002i

CONTENTS

page

1. Current Topics about the Radiological Consequences by the Chernobyl Accident
Tetsuji IMANAKA

1

2. The Chernobyl Reactor: Design Features and Reasons for Accident
Mikhail V. MALKO

11

3. The Causes and Scenario of the Chernobyl Accident, and Radioactive Release on the CHNPP
Unit-4 Site
Boris I. GORBACHEV

28

4. Nuclear Fuel in the Destroyed 4th Unit of Chernobyl NPP
Volodymyr M. PAVLOVYCH

45

5. Analysis of Radioactive Contamination in the Near Zone of Chornobyl NPP
Alexander GAYDAR and Oleg NASVIT

59

6. Radioecological Situation in the Cooling Pond of Chornobyl NPP
Oleg NASVIT

74

7. Iodine-131 Contamination, Thyroid Doses and Thyroid Cancer in the Contaminated Areas ofRussia
Valery F. STEPANENKO, Evgeny M. PARSHKOV, Viktor A. SOKOLOV, Mark Yu. ORLOV,Alexander I. IVANNIKOV, Valery G. SKVORTSOV, Elena K. IASKOVA, Timofey V. KOLIZSHENKOV,Irina G. KRYUKOVA and Anatoly F. TSYB

86

8. Radioactive Contamination of Food in Stepanivka Village, Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine: in 1992
and in 2001
Volodymyr TYKHYY

97

9. Content of Radionuclides of Chernobyl Origin in Food Products for the Belarusian Population 103
Vladimir P. MATSKO and Tetsuji IMANAKA
10. Long-Term Observation of Radioactivity Contamination in Fish around ChernobylIgor N. RYABOV112

11. EPR Dosimetry of Chernobyl Liquidators
Vadim CHUMAK

123

12. Retrospective Dose Assessment of Inhabitants in the Contaminated Areas of Russia by EPR
Measurement of Tooth Enamel
Alexandre I. IVANNIKOV, Valeri G. SKVORTSOV and Valeri F. STEPANENKO

142

13. Estimations of Radiation Risk for the Population of Contaminated Territory of Belarus
Vladimir A. KNATKO, Mikhail M. KOMOCHKOV and Alla E. YANUSH

152

14. Estimation of Thyroid Doses from Inhalation of 131I for Population of Contaminated Regions of 160
Belarus
Vladimir A. KNATKO and Inga N. DOROZHOK
15. Radiation Epidemiological Studies in Russian National Medical and Dosimetric Registry:
168
Estimation of Cancer and Non-cancer Consequences Observed among Chernobyl Liquidators
Marat M. MAKSIOUTOViii188
16. Review of Epidemiological Finding in Study of Medical Consequences of the Chernobyl
Accident in Ukrainian Population
Anatoly Ye. PRYSYAZHNYUK, Volodymir G. GRISHTSHENKO, Zoya P. FEDORENKO, Ludmila O. GULAKand Mykola. M. FUZIK
17. Intelligence and Brain Damage in Children Acutely Irradiated in Utero As a Result of theChernobyl Accident
Angelina I. NYAGU, Konstantin N. LOGANOVSKY, Tatiana K. LOGANOVSKAYA, Viktor S. REPIN andStanislav Yu. NECHAEV

202

18. Health State of Belarusian Children Suffering from the Chernobyl Accident: Sixteen Years
after the Catastrophe
Alexander N. ARYNCHYN, Tatiana V. AVHACHEVA, Nika A. GRES and Ekaterina I. SLOBOZHANINA

231

19. Chernobyl Radiation-induced Thyroid Cancers in Belarus
Mikhail V. MALKO

240

20. Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Human Lymphocytes after Accidental Exposure toIonizing Radiation
Galina SNIGIRYOVA and Vladimir SHEVCHENKO

256

21. The Follow-up Study of Chromosomal aberrations in Chernobyl Clean-up Workers
Natalia M. SLOZINA and Elizaveta G. NERONOVA

268

22. Chromosomal Aberrations in Blood Lymphocytes of the Residents of 30-km Chornobyl NPP
Exclusion Zone
Larysa BEZDROBNA, Tetyana TSYGANOK, Olena ROMANOVA, Larysa TARASENKO,Volodymyr TRYSHYN and Ludmila KLIMKINA

277

23. Cytogenetic Effects of Radiation on Agricultural Plants Observed in the Chernobyl region
during the First Years after the Accident
Stanislav A. GERASKIN, Vladimir G. DIKAREV, Yevgenia Ya. ZYABLITSKAYA, Alla A. OUDALOVA andYevgeniy V. SPIRIN

287

24. Abstracts (in Japanese)

297iv