Estimation of the protected zone sizes for peaceful nuclear explosions based on quantitative patterns of the Earth’s interior deformation

Abstract

The designation of peaceful nuclear explosions as special radioactive waste imposes serious requirements to the territory of the explosion, its boundaries, and stakeholders informing about the prohibition of economic activities within these boundaries. The acting Sanitary Norms and Rules SanPiN 2.6.1.2819–10 “Ensuring radiation safety of the population living in areas where nuclear explosions were conducted (1965–1988) for peaceful purposes” do not define the size of the boundaries of protected zones. The aim of this paper is to analyze the scientific literature on the structure of deformation changes in the Earth’s interior due to peaceful nuclear explosions and to justify quantitative ratios on the basis of which the size of protected zones can be estimated. The quantitative ratios were selected on the basis of a comparative analysis of the literature data. Using the ratios values made it possible to calculate the radii of deformation changes (cavities, crushing zones, fracturing zones, and zones of residual deformations) in various rocks. It is shown that the maximum values of fracturing radii for peaceful nuclear explosions carried out on the territory of the Russian Federation in hard rocks and in plastic rocks do not exceed 200 m and 250 m, respectively.