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Exposure to ionizing radiation, especially during childhood, is a well-established risk factor for thyroid cancer. Following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident the total number of cases of thyroid cancer registered between 1991 and 2015 in males and females who were less than 18 years old exceeded 19,000 (in Belarus and Ukraine, and in the most contaminated oblasts of the Russian Federation). However, as indicated by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the fraction of the incidence of thyroid cancer attributable to radiation exposure among the non-evacuated residents of the contaminated regions of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia is of the order of 0.25. Apparently, the increased registration of thyroid neoplasms in the parts of these countries is a classical 'screening effect', i.e., massive diagnostic examinations of the risk-aware populations performed with modern eqipment resulting in detection of many occult neoplasms (incidentalomas). Moreover, one type of thyroid cancer previously called 'encapsulated follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma' is non-invasive and instead of 'carcinoma' should now be recognized as 'noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features.' Other potential causes of overdiagnosing of thyroid tumors include increase of the spontaneous incidence rate of this disease with age, iodine deficiency among children from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, and/or consumption by these children of drinking water containing high levels of nitrates that likely coincides with the carcinogenic effect of radiation on the thyroid gland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensive pollution of vast areas after the Chernobyl accident, especially in the territories of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, has not only become a serious environmental issue, but also presents wide methodological opportunities for studying the functioning of natural systems. The proposed work is a generalization of the results of studies on the migration of 137Cs in the runoff of river sediments, which were carried out in the basin of the Upa River for over 30 years after the accident. This basin is one of the most radioactively contaminated and studied in Central Russia. Over the past three decades, under the conditions of the decreasing snowmelt runoff in the spring and reduced share of cultivated land over the post-Soviet period, the intensity of the 137Cs transfer has decreased. The 137Cs deposit losses associated with erosion activities do not exceed a few percent. Most of the mobilized sediments and sediment-associated radionuclides accumulate in dry valleys or artificial reservoirs. With a general reduction in the durations of floods, rivers have become the predominant channels for the transfer of sediment yield and particulate pollutants. The exploration of the vertical distribution of the 137Cs in the accumulative strata makes it possible to identify the changes in the sediment budgets of the rivers and their radioecological consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-five years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the morphometric indicators of the needles of Scots pine growing on the territory of the Polesye State Radiation-Ecological Reserve in Gomel' oblast of Belarus were evaluated. In 2021, the variability of needles in length and weight, the indices of fluctuating asymmetry, and the frequency and degree of damage to needles by necrosis at three impact and two control plots were studied. The power of the equivalent ambient dose of gamma radiation was from 0.25 to 9.85 μSv/h at a height of 1 m at the impact plots. The length and weight of needles, the indices of fluctuating asymmetry in the studied populations had significant differences from the control values, but did not demonstrate a relationship with the radiation exposure. The frequency of needles heavily damaged by necrosis in the most radioactively contaminated sites is significantly higher than both controls. Thus, even 35 years after the accident, populations of Scots pine, which is one of the most radiosensitive plant species, can be detected to have morphological changes associated with radiation exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The environmental radiation pollution resulting from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 is one of the main factors limiting agriculture in the eastern regions of Belarus. In the first decade after the accident, the need to mitigate the effects of radiation had a key role in the implementation of countermeasures. As a result, there are widespread areas of high soil fertility potential in the contaminated zone. Today there is a possibility to include new crops (e.g. sugar beet [Beta vulgaris L.]) into regular crop rotation to increase the effectiveness of agriculture and to use the accumulated soil fertility potential. The article discusses a possible agronomic approach to estimating specific fields (working plots) at the scale of agricultural enterprises for placement of sugar beet. The territory of the Mahilyow region of the Republic of Belarus was examined from the perspective of soil suitability to the cultivation of sugar beet. Along with estimating radionuclide accumulation by sugar beet roots, the areas of soils suitable for sugar beet within agricultural enterprises were calculated for selected districts. It was revealed that sugar beet has low ability to absorb radiocaesium and radiostrontium from soils. The contamination density does not restrict the possibility for placement of sugar beet. Instead, soil fertility, specifically content of plant-available phosphorus and boron, was the limiting factor in that. Based on data from field experiments and soil fertility data, a number of enterprises were selected where sugar beet could be included into crop rotations to high economic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I reflect on the differences between two independent citizen approaches to monitoring radiological contamination, one in Belarus after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and the other in Japan following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. I examine these approaches from the perspective of their contribution to making radiological contamination more publicly visible (i.e., publicly recognized as a hazard). The analysis is grounded in my earlier work (Kuchinskaya 2014), where I examined how we have come to know what we know about post–Chernobyl contamination and its effects in Belarus, a former Soviet republic most heavily affected by the fallout. As I described in this study, much of what we know about the consequences of Chernobyl is based on the work of the Belarusian nonprofit Institute of Radiation Safety, "Belrad." I compare Belrad's approach to radiological monitoring with the work of the volunteer network Safecast, arguably one of the best-known citizen science projects in the world, which is working to monitor the scope of the post–Fukushima contamination. Through this comparison of approaches, I raise broader questions about a form of sensing practices—data-related practices of citizen science that make environmental hazards publicly in/visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]