Assessment of the doses to the population of the regions of Russia from exposure to the cosmic radiation

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a refined calculation of the average individual annual effective doses to the population of the regions of Russia from exposure to the cosmic radiation. The population-weighted average values of the altitude and latitude of the main settlements, which are home to at least 50 percent of the population of the region, were used as the altitude and latitude of the region. In addition, all settlements with a population of at least 20 thousand people were included in the calculation. Coverage of the population of the regions of Russia in the calculation varies from 50.1 to 95.8 percent (excluding three cities of Federal importance with 100 percent coverage) with the average value of 62.4 percent. The number of settlements included in the calculation in different regions ranges from 1 to 63. The methodology of the dose calculation is based on the approach described in the UNSCEAR 2000 Report. The obtained dose values for different regions range from 0.310 to 0.413 mSv. For Russia as a whole country, the population-weighted average individual annual effective dose from exposure to the cosmic radiation is 0.338 mSv.