RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE NUCLEAR ENTERPRISE MAYAK PA - RESULTS FROM THE JOINT RUSSIAN-NORWEGIAN FIELD WORK IN 1994

A brief overview of the radioactive waste inventory of the 'Mayak' PA reprocessing plant, Chelyabinsk Region, Russia is given together with a description of the environmental contamination caused by its activit ies and the origins of contamination. The joint Russian-Norwegian fiel d work in 1994 is described, together with the major analytical result s. The field work was of a limited extent, and was not designed to inc lude a complete mapping of the environmental contamination around the plant. The results are, however, in good agreement with the very exten sive previous Russian investigations. The highest concentrations of ra dioactivity were found in Reservoirs 10 and II and at the floodplain o f the upper Techa River (Asanov Swamp). Also high concentrations are f ound in biota, especially fish from Reservoir 10. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sc ience B.V.