Assessment of annual effective dose from external exposure in forests of the south-western districts of the Bryansk region of Russia: 2015–2021

During a stay in radioactively contaminated forest, person is inevitably exposed to ionizing radiation from the man-made radionuclides. The purpose of this study was evaluate external component annual effective dose due exposure forests following Chernobyl accident. conducted south-western districts Bryansk region Russia period 2015–2021. Field (in situ) gamma spectrometric measurements were carried out on 46 forest plots located areas 27 settlements. As 01.01.2017, officially established values soil contamination density with 137 Cs territory settlements themselves range 33 2050 kBq/m 2 . According field spectrometry, varied 21 1930 good agreement level nearby settlement: ratio one indicator another ranged 0.70 1.32 (mean = 0.94; median 0.95). scatter measured ambient equivalent rate quite significant: more than order magnitude, 31 2700 nSv/h. variability natural radionuclides relatively small: 13 29 Based obtained experimental data and published duration human selected groups population estimated. radionuclides, even case prolonged (1400 hours per year for foresters), did not exceed 0.02 mSv/year. estimated very widely 0.001 1.9 mSv/year, depending plot group. On whole, indicate that settlement can be directly used dosimetric models estimate his/her staying which area settlement. currently recommended conversion coefficient 1.28 (nSv/h)/(kBq/m ). To it use value equal