Radiological Risk from Contaminated Biomass Combustion Facilities. V. Goulo, A. Andrizhijevski, V. V. Rymkevich, and A. Z. Grebenkov, Institute of Power Engineering Problems, Sosny, Minsk 220109, Belarus
It is suggested that safe utilization of contaminated wood resources would provide sustainable remediation of Belarus forests contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident. The use of contaminated biomass as a fuel for steam and power production would address both the existing deficit of energy and gradual loss of economic value of wood stand in identified regions. One of the positive outcomes of this activity would be the reduction of radiological risks to the general public and forestry personnel. Several dose pathways and possible scenarios were evaluated. It was ascertained that for the biomass-fired power plant workers the main risk is posed by irradiation from ash handling procedure, while for the general public the main risk is associated with radioactive aerosol emission from boiler. It is shown that these doses are easy to control by conventional effective technologies, and possible negative impact may be negligible compared to the risks associated with the exposure pathways under baseline scenarios.
Work is supported by IPP program of DOE USA.
Go to . . .
1999 SRA Table of Contents
1999 SRA Author Index
Main Abstracts Menu Page
RiskWorld Home Page