Radiation State of the Exclusion Zone of 2024 in Accordance With the Results of Radiation Environmental Monitoring

The article presents results of radiation and environmental monitoring in the Exclusion Zone for the year 2024. According to the results of radiation and environmental monitoring in the Exclusion Zone in 2024, important analytical data were obtained: maximum power values of the ambient dose equivalent of gamma radiation are characteristic of the territories in the northern and western 'trace' of radioactive fallout; radiation state of the Exclusion Zone air environment and its dynamics during 2024 were determined by the nature of surface contamination of the territory, сontrol levels exceeding activity in the air was recorded; surface waters remain an important route of radionuclide removal beyond the Exclusion Zone; radiation state of underground waters, radionuclide contamination of eocene and cenomanian-lower cretaceous water-bearing complexes; monitoring results at landscape landfills; radiation survey results of unauthorized residence places of the population in the Exclusion Zone. In May 2024, a 2-fold excess of the control levels of bulk activity of 137Cs was recorded in the surface layer of the atmosphere of the city of Chornobyl, a place of prolonged stay of personnel. Surface waters remain the main route of radionuclides removal outside the WZ. The water removal of 90Sr by the Pryp’yat’ River in the Chornobyl zone in 2024 was 1.3 times less than the removal in 2023 and 1.6 times greater than the average value for the last 5 years. The main reserves of activity are concentrated in the Temporary radioactive waste storage points “Budbaza” and “Red forest”, which are located along the western trace of the Chernobyl emission. In some areas of the right-bank floodplain of the Pripyat River, the so-called “distributed” sources of radionuclide migration begin to play a decisive role in shaping the removal of 90Sr by groundwater into the Pryp’yat’ River.