Composition, Property and Level of Radionuclide Contamination of the Soil Cover within 15 km Zone of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant

The investigation of soil-plant cover was conducted in the 15 km zone of the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP). In this paper, data of the complex analysis of the land structure, variety of the soil types, their physical and chemical properties and content of ^sup 90^Sr, ^sup 137^Cs and ^sup 238-240^Pu are presented. The greater part of the investigated territory (85.2 %) is occupied with lands of the forest fund: brown forest soils, rusty soils, soddy-brown soils, soddy-podzolic, grey and dark grey soils of middle and light granulometric composition. The agricultural lands are presented by dark and light agrozems. Radionuclides content in the examined soils decreased in the order ^sup 137^Cs > ^sup 90^Sr > ^sup 238-239^Pu. The content of ^sup 90^Sr, ^sup 137^Cs and ^sup 238-239^Pu fluctuated between 0.4-7.8, 0.1-9.8 and 0.03-0.1 kBk/m^sup 2^, respectively. On the whole, the level of the radionuclides content in the soil cover is within the limits of the background that was formed in the Urals region.