11.09.2007 // Information Department of Leningrad NPP

On Sept 19–21 2007 Leningrad NPP will host planned complex emergency training

Fallen poplar leaves, strangely smelling water, smoke from the dump, “buzz” from the industrial zone – whatever unusual happens, the residents of Sosnovy Bor call the head of the Ecology and Ecological Safety Department of the local Administration Natalia Malevannaya.
 
— Ms. Malevannaya, what will you do in case of an accident at Leningrad NPP?

— I have no small children but I have my office and duties. The first thing I will do – unless I am already in my office – is run here to see what has actually happened – if it is a real accident or a false report. Perhaps, things are not as awful as they have been reported to be. Unless LNPP informs us we will never know what exactly has happened there, if there has been any radioactive emission into the air or a spill into the sea.

In my family everybody knows what to do: first of all, you must shut the doors and windows, stop the ventilation ducts, fill the bath with water, put all your products there and treat them with iodine. You must do everything calmly — no panic. The radioactive cloud may pass by without affecting you. The main thing is to avoid the “first blow.” Radiation diffuses very quickly, so, you may not even need evacuation.

In other countries – especially in the Netherlands and Germany – the authorities provide the population living near NPPs with instruction sheets: beautiful pictures you can see in every house. You see them everyday and you can’t help learning what you must do if something extraordinary happens. Sometimes, we organize emergency trainings: people from LNPP instruct us on how to act in case of emergency. We play situation games and learn. Once you know what to do you no longer fear and panic. Unfortunately, our people are not as well informed as the Germans or the Dutch are.

To me, such trainings are not just part of my work or a chance to meet and have a talk with specialists. It is learning. I hate when somebody says: “Let’s conduct training, get a bonus for it and be happy!” I get angry when I hear some people say that the real training is what LNPP does, while in Sosnovy Bor it is just a formality. I think that there is little difference between people at LNPP and people in Sosnovy Bor: we all work but we all have families and whatever we do we think about them.

By the way, our children are all in schools and kindergartens and their teachers know what to do with them in case of an accident. Schools and kindergartens will be the first to receive vehicles for evacuation. We don’t have money for evacuating the whole city. So, I think we need to build shelters, like bomb shelters at wartime, and to provide each resident with an individual protection kit, including gauze bandages and potassium iodine pills. 

— The words like “radioactive could” make me scary. What does it mean?

— You must know that there are three types of radiation: alpha, beta and gamma. Alpha and beta are particles, gamma is a ray. “Radioactive cloud” is a concentration of gamma radiation in the air. You can’t see it in sunny weather, in rainy weather it may come down with the rain. “Radioactive cloud” has a deep penetrating effect and you must try to avoid it or protect yourself from it.

There is also natural radiation background – in Sosnovy Bor and nearby area it is 20 mRh or 0.2 mSvh. At this moment, the sensor in my office shows 0.114 mSvh, which is equivalent to 11.4 mRh. This is within norm. Radiation depends on environment. In marshy areas it is lower than 10 mRh, but near granite, which is a source of radiation (for example, near the Bronze Horseman in St.Petersburg) it is no less than 35 mRh.

Absorbed dose is the amount of radiation the organism of an irradiated person absorbs. It depends on the strength and the period of irradiation. The law on radiation safety says that a person can absorb 2 R a year and this dose is not hazardous to his health. If you divide 2 R by 365 days you will get more than 20 mRh. But this is a relative figure. For children and old people 2 R a year may be harmful.

Formerly, the admissible level was 60 mRh, today, it is 20 mRh. Each morning I visit the web-site of Leningrad NPP to see the daily radiation report by the plant’s automated radiation control system. The system consists of 26 sensors installed all over the 30-km zone. You can see the same information on the web-site of our city. As the head of the ecology and ecological safety department, I am the first to react to any rumors and reports about radioactive emissions in the area.

In case of an accident, we will analyze the report of LNPP and the meteorological conditions and will see what effects the radioactivity may have on the population and the environment. LNPP is situated southward of Sosnovy Bor. So, if the wind blows from the north-west, the cloud will pass us by but if it blows from the south-west, south or south-east it will cover the city. We will calculate which sectors it will cover and will take action to neutralize it.

A special group will go all over the area and measure the radiation. The wind is not the only factor. Much depends on the radioactivity fallout. 

— Let’s imagine that there has been a radioactive accident, that there is a radioactive cloud, it has passed and has left a trace, what then?

— In close contract with LNPP, we will define the radioactive factors and calculate the radioactivity. As a result, we will determine the collective irradiation dose. It is for the plant to reduce the negative effects of the accident. If it says that the situation is critical, our municipal authorities and military forces will start evacuating people.

As a source of potential radiation, Leningrad NPP has a limit of liability per accident. If a person has suffered from an accident and sues LNPP in order to get treatment and compensation, the plant transfers the claim to its insurance company, who will provide the clamant with what he claims.

We still have some legislative gaps in the point concerning recovery of living conditions. 15 years have passed since the Chernobyl accident, but some of the local territories are still unrecovered. Here, the clamant is the local government.

If the limit of liability is exceeded, the state should cover the rest. In the world companies insuring high-risk facilities generally have two funds: reserve fund (money for compensation) and a preventive fund (money for improvement). In Russia I have seen no insurance company spending money on the safety of the facility it has insured. I think we need to change our liability insurance system. 

Rosenergoatom Concern spends lot of money on the safety of its NPPs, but we can’t say that our NPPs are absolutely safe: no technical structure can be absolutely safe. That’s what complex emergency trainings are for. We not only check up our preparedness but we also consider new ways of prevention and compensation. Such trainings will pave the way for legislative and practical improvement.

Interview by Olga Petrova