Setting standards for the safe level of radioactive contamination of waterand bottom sediments in bodies of water

In this paper we propose standards which can Be used to simply and reliably monitor the content of technogenic radioactive substances in rivers and ot her bodies of water We introduce the concept of "maximum safe concentration " and "reference monitored concentration" of radionuclides in water and als o the "maximum concentration of radionuclides in bottom sediments." To dete rmine the maximum safe concentration of radionuclides in water; we have use d the basic public health principle established in NRB-96: to not exceed th e limit of an effective dose of I mSv/y for external and internal radiation exposure for a critical population group, considering overall water use. T o define the degree of radioactive contamination of the bottom of bodies of water we propose using the maximum concentration of radionuclides in botto m sediments: a concentration less than that for which the bottom sediments may be classified in the category of "low activity solid radioactive wastes " according to OSP-72/87. We offer a calculation scheme and numerical value s for the proposed standards for some radionuclides most frequently encount ered in practice and examples of their use.