Assessment of radionuclide migration and radiological human exposure at the closed near-surface radioactive waste repository

The near-surface “RADON” type radioactive waste repository, installed in 1963 and designed to store radioactive waste formed in industry, medicine and scientific investigations, was closed in 1989 because it did not meet the requirements imposed on the radioactive waste disposal. A comparatively small amount of radioactive waste is stored in this repository, but the inventory comprises various kinds of waste: short-lived low-level radioactive waste, short-lived low and intermediate radioactive waste, long-lived intermediate and high-level radioactive waste. The possible site-specific radionuclide migration through the groundwater pathway as well as the human exposure are considered by the computer program RESRAD-OFFSITE in this paper. The analysis of the obtained data shows that out of all stored radionuclides only H-3, C-14 and Cl-36 exceeding the dose constraint of 0.2 mSv can be considered as dangerous. The monitoring carried out in the repository environment has shown the contamination of groundwater with radioactive tritium and a significant reduction of contamination after construction of additional protective engineering barriers. For the assessment of the contribution of separate site-specific parameters of the model taking into account uncertainties of the model and parameters to the annual effective dose, the computer code RESRAD-OFFSITE provides the possibility of applying the regression analysis. It has been determined that the aquifer lateral dispersion as well as the hydraulic gradient, the radionuclide activity concentration in the repository together with the rate of penetration into the environment and the precipitation amount have the largest influence on the assessment accuracy of annual effective doses.