Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2009

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No: 1003

Conference: Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2009

Title: Slovenian Experience with Inconsistencies in the Global Contamination Monitoring Results

Theme: Radiation and Environment

Author(s): Michel Cindro, Milko Križman, Barbara Vokal Nemec

Contact : Michel Cindro

E-mail: michel.cindro@gov.si

Address: Uprava Republike Slovenije za jedrsko varnost
1001 Ljubljana

Country: Slovenia

Monitoring of the global radioactive contamination due to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests (1951-1980) and the Chernobyl accident (1986) has been carried out in Slovenia since the early sixties. The primary purpose of the monitoring program is to provide a basis for calculating the exposure of the population due to radioactive contaminants. Secondarily, due to the very long measuring period, it is possible to observe and understand trends of radionuclide concentrations in different media.
Above all, two long-lived fission radionuclides, 137Cs and 90Sr, have been followed in the atmosphere, water, soil and in drinking water as well as in foodstuffs and feeding stuffs. In addition to that, river water contamination with 131I due to medical use was also monitored. In all samples, other natural gamma emitters are also measured, as well as 3H in drinking water and precipitation.
Slovenia has two technical support organisations, which have been performing the monitoring practically from its start. The measurement program was roughly equally divided between them, each organisation always measuring same samples, with few samples duplicated for checking purposes. With the changes in legislation and the way public procurements are awarded, this mode of operation had to be changed. As a consequence, the continuity of measurements is broken since 2005. The monitoring program is still divided into 2 roughly equivalent parts, with organisations switching between those parts practically every year.
Both organisations are accredited for performing monitoring by the Slovenian nuclear Safety Administration. The Slovenian legislation has set the accreditation according to ISO/IEC 17025 standard, used by testing and calibration laboratories, as one of the conditions for this. If we take this into account, the change of monitoring operator should not present a problem and all results should be consistent. Nevertheless, we have noticed some irregularities in long term trends. It has been shown in the evaluation process that several factors may contribute to these inconsistencies. The primary reason is the change of sampling location, which can lead to change of results due to different characteristics of the media at the chosen sampling location. At times, monitoring was conducted near nuclear objects, which is obviously a poor choice for environmental survey which should be generalized for the whole population.
These inconsistencies and irregularities can lead to different exposure estimates on yearly bases, artificially boosting or diminishing the calculated influence of the radioactive contamination on the population.

No:	1003
Conference:	Nuclear Energy for New Europe 2009
Title:	Slovenian Experience with Inconsistencies in the Global Contamination Monitoring Results
Theme:	Radiation and Environment
Author(s):	Michel Cindro, Milko Križman, Barbara Vokal Nemec
Contact :	Michel Cindro
E-mail:	michel.cindro@gov.si
Address:	Uprava Republike Slovenije za jedrsko varnost 1001 Ljubljana
Country:	Slovenia

Monitoring of the global radioactive contamination due to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests (1951-1980) and the Chernobyl accident (1986) has been carried out in Slovenia since the early sixties. The primary purpose of the monitoring program is to provide a basis for calculating the exposure of the population due to radioactive contaminants. Secondarily, due to the very long measuring period, it is possible to observe and understand trends of radionuclide concentrations in different media. Above all, two long-lived fission radionuclides, 137Cs and 90Sr, have been followed in the atmosphere, water, soil and in drinking water as well as in foodstuffs and feeding stuffs. In addition to that, river water contamination with 131I due to medical use was also monitored. In all samples, other natural gamma emitters are also measured, as well as 3H in drinking water and precipitation. Slovenia has two technical support organisations, which have been performing the monitoring practically from its start. The measurement program was roughly equally divided between them, each organisation always measuring same samples, with few samples duplicated for checking purposes. With the changes in legislation and the way public procurements are awarded, this mode of operation had to be changed. As a consequence, the continuity of measurements is broken since 2005. The monitoring program is still divided into 2 roughly equivalent parts, with organisations switching between those parts practically every year. Both organisations are accredited for performing monitoring by the Slovenian nuclear Safety Administration. The Slovenian legislation has set the accreditation according to ISO/IEC 17025 standard, used by testing and calibration laboratories, as one of the conditions for this. If we take this into account, the change of monitoring operator should not present a problem and all results should be consistent. Nevertheless, we have noticed some irregularities in long term trends. It has been shown in the evaluation process that several factors may contribute to these inconsistencies. The primary reason is the change of sampling location, which can lead to change of results due to different characteristics of the media at the chosen sampling location. At times, monitoring was conducted near nuclear objects, which is obviously a poor choice for environmental survey which should be generalized for the whole population. These inconsistencies and irregularities can lead to different exposure estimates on yearly bases, artificially boosting or diminishing the calculated influence of the radioactive contamination on the population.