The Techa River dosimetry system: methods for the reconstruction of internal dose.

The Mayak Production Association (MPA) was the first facility in the former Soviet Union for the production of plutonium. Significant worker and population exposures occurred as a result of failures in the technological processes in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Residents of many villages downstream on the Techa River were exposed via a variety of pathways; the more significant included drinking of water from the river and external gamma exposure due to proximity to contaminated bottom sediment and shoreline. After the extent of the major contamination of the Techa River became known, several villages on the upper part of the Techa River were evacuated. Organ doses are being reconstructed on the basis of derivation of an historical source term and a simple river model used to simulate the transport of radionuclides downstream and their retention on sediments; measurements of 90Sr content in teeth and the whole body of half of the members of the cohort; and development of the "Techa River Dosimetry System" for computation of the doses.