Leningrad NPP is the biggest electricity producer in North-Western Russia. It is situated on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km south-west of St.Petersburg and has four RBMK-1000 reactors. The 1 st one was launched in Dec 1973, the last – Feb 1981.

The satellite city of LNPP, Sosnovy Bor, rises beautifully in the horizon among coast dunes and pine woods as an excellent example of harmony between nature and technology.

Ecology… Today, this word can often be seen in headlines and heard in breaking news on TV… Media keep reporting "ecological" disasters… Commercials keep praising "ecologically safe" products and housewives keep hunting for them in shops.

Ecology is a science about living environment, about life in contact with nature, about how to make yourself at home on the Earth. For our civilization "home" is the Earth: each spot on it and the entire space around.

The world we know is impossible without the Sun – a source of light, heat and life. But the Sun is also a source of radiation.

Humankind is also a source of radiation: in the last centennial we have learned how to produce radio waves for communication and navigation, micro waves for cooking, laser for medicine, science and industry… and, of course, radiation.

Radiation is a very broad term. There is ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is energetic particles or waves that have the potential to ionize an atom or molecule through atomic interactions. Examples of ionizing radiation are energetic Beta particles, neutrons, alpha particles, energetic photons, X-rays and gamma rays

Ionizing radiation cannot be sensed by human sensory organs but can be measured by detectors: dosimeters utilizing photographic film.

Ionizing radiation is measured in doses – amount of energy absorbed from a source of radiation.

However, similar doses of different types of radiation do not always produce similar biological effects. The equivalent dose (H_T) is a measure that allows for this difference. Equivalent dose is measured in sieverts.

The strength of ionizing radiation depends on its type: in order to protect yourself from alpha radiation you need just a sheet of paper, from Beta particles – 6 mm sheet of aluminum. Gamma radiation is the strongest: to get protected from it you need a lead or concrete shield.

NPPs are one of the manmade sources of ionizing radiation.

NPPs are much safer than plants using other types of fuel. Coal fired power plants contaminate the nearby areas with harmful coal dust; water power plants flood nearby meadows; wind power plants scare off animals with their supersonic waves.

NPPs emit much less radiation than any other plant: for example, the ash dumps of coal fired power plants produce 5-40 times more radiation than NPPs.

NPPs do not produce acid rains as they do not burn valuable organic fuel. NPPs do not pollute the air with toxic emissions and do not "devour" oxygen.

Leningrad NPP has the following effects on the environment:

radiation (through liquid, gas, aerosol and solid radioactive waste);
thermal (through release of sea water used as coolant);
chemical (through liquid industrial waste containing toxic matters).

Radiation is given priority. During its operation LNPP produces radioactive matters that may cause harm to human health. That’s why the plant is constantly working to prevent any possibility of radiation effects on the personnel, population and environment and has special barriers that prevent radioactive emissions.

The plant has five radiation control and measuring barriers:

system that controls emissions through the main aerating duct;
system that controls the radiation situation at the plant;
system that controls water releases;
system that controls the radiation situation in the sanitary zone (3-km zone)
system that controls the radiation situation in the 30-km monitoring zone.

The radiation situation is being constantly monitored by the Automated Radiation Control System.

The ARCS controls radiation round-the-clock and reports on it to both LNPP and the United State Automated Radiation Control System.

The system detects radioactive emissions, forecasts ways of their possible spreading and sends relevant reports to the management of LNPP, the municipalities of Sosnovy Bor and St.Petersburg and the Ministry of Atomic Energy as well as to colleagues from STUK (Finland)

The system consists of 26 stations and 1 mobile system controlling gamma background, 2 floating stations controlling radio-nuclide composition of the water in the waterways of the 1 st and 2nd units and 2 stations controlling ground-level pollution.

The radiation control laboratories of Leningrad NPP and the Sanitary-Epidemiological Inspection of the Russian Federation monitor:

air and liquid waste;
ground waters and precipitation;
bottom sediments and water plants;
soil and flora;
berries and mushrooms;
fish in the Gulf and in the plant’s nurseries;
radon content in the air.

For cooling down its operating systems the plant uses sea water, which, heated by 10 C, is sent back to the Gulf of Finland.

Regular analyses reveal no radiation in raw and waste waters. In fact, sea water cannot be contaminated during heat exchange as its pressure is higher than the pressure of the process fluids.

Many-year observations have shown that Leningrad NPP has almost no impact on the nearby area and that the radiation dose its personnel receive on-site makes up just 1% of what they receive from natural sources of radiation.

Sosnovy Bor has a system of ecological education of the growing generation. In 1995 the local authorities launched an ecological safety program for schoolchildren.

In Sosnovy Bor children are taught ecology from kindergartens. At school they have special subject "Ecology."

The initiator of this program is School N7. It is "the most ecological" school of the region. It has children’s ecological organization and scientific society:

children monitor the ecological situation in the area,
analyze tendencies and changes in it,
see that ecological safety rules be observed,
inspect local reservoirs, gardens, beaches,
study the zooplankton of Kopora bay.

This experience helps the children to better understand the world and to realize that they are responsible for their actions and their possible consequences. We hope that our growing generation will be able to save our beautiful world and will make it even better.

INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION

The International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP, is an independent Registered Charity, established to advance for the public benefit the science of radiological protection, in particular by providing recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionizing radiation.

Is an advisory body providing recommendations and guidance on radiation protection;

Was founded in 1928 by the International Society of Radiology (ISR, the professional society of radiologist physicians);

Was then called the ‘International X-ray and Radium Protection Committee’;

Was restructured to better take account of uses of radiation outside the medical area, and given its present name, in 1950;

Is an Independent Registered Charity (a ‘not-for-profit organization’) in the United Kingdom; and Currently has its small Scientific Secretariat in Sweden.

ICRP offers its recommendations to regulatory and advisory agencies and provides advice intended to be of help to management and professional staff with responsibilities for radiological protection. While ICRP has no formal power to impose its proposals on anyone, in fact legislation in most countries adheres closely to ICRP recommendations.

Originally, ICRP published its recommendations and advice as papers in various scientific journals in the fields of medicine and physics. Since 1959, ICRP has its own series of publications, since 1977 in the shape of a scientific journal, the Annals of the ICRP, which is published for us by Pergamon Press (now an imprint of Elsevier Science).

The activities of ICRP are financed mainly by voluntary contributions from national and international bodies with an interest in radiological protection. Some additional funds accrue from royalties on ICRP publications.

ICRP is composed of a Main Commission and five standing Committees: on Radiation Effects, on Doses from radiation exposure, on Protection in medicine, and on the Application of ICRP recommendations, and on Protection of the environment, all served by a small Scientific Secretariat. The Main Commission consists of twelve members and a Chairman (currently Dr L-E Holm, Sweden). Like other scientific academies, the Commission elects its own members, under rules that are subject to the approval of ISR. Renewal is assured in that 3 to 5 members must be changed every fourth year. Committees typically comprise 15-20 members. Biologists and medical doctors dominate the current membership; physicists are also well represented

ICRP uses Task Groups (performing defined tasks) and Working Parties (developing ideas) to prepare its reports. A Task Group usually contains a majority of specialists from outside the ICRP membership. Thus, ICRP is an independent international network of specialists in various fields of radiological protection. At any one time, about one hundred eminent scientists are actively involved in the work of ICRP.