Presentation of Archival Information on the Overcoming the Consequences of Radiation Accidents through Internet-Portal

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the historical experience of overcoming the consequences of radiation accidents for the environment, and also to enable the remote user independently obtain data on the radiation contamination of areas through the Internet-portal implemented within the Interdepartmental Information System on the issues of radiation safety and radiation problems.
 Material and methods: Specialists have collected a large volume of information obtained during expedition inspections of contaminated areas, starting in 1986 – the moment of the radiation accident at the Chernobyl NPP – and ending with 2015 (the year of the 30th anniversary of the accident), an array of paper official documents of different levels of hierarchy (departmental, interdepartmental, governmental). The Catalog of documents is composed in such a way that at each level one can get acquainted with the list of documents, with the meta-description of documents, with the original scanned source document (by reference given in the meta description).The scientific task of creating an information system, containing archival information, included the development of two groups of criteria for selecting information. All information was firstly analyzed by experts on two criteria: openness (a status that does not currently have restrictions on publication) and historical affiliation. The documents of this group include information from 1986 up to 2012. Then the criteria for assigning information to a particular group were developed. 
 Results: This work, for the first time, enables the remote user to obtain reliable data on radiation contamination independently. The user can know the years of the first and last inspection of the selected settlement, average density of cesium-137 contamination in the year of interest, as well as information on the number of samples taken in the year of interest. All data on the content of 137Cs obtained at different times are recalculated to the indicated single date (as of January 1 of each year), taking into account the correction for the radioactive decay of this radionuclide. In addition, the user can find out in the zone of which pollution category, approved by the Government List, is the locality indicated by the user. 
 Conclusion: Thus, the approach of presenting information on a specialized Internet-portal allows us to consider it as a tool for analyzing decisions taken. This approach allowed us to see the overall picture of efforts to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident. In the case of large scale radiation accidents and the adoption of many unconventional solutions at all levels of the hierarchy, this experience available to the remote user is crucial importance. The approach to the presentation of archival information on the overcome of the consequences of radiation accidents through Internet-portal showed the urgency of presenting the efforts of management, specialists and various services to overcome the consequences of such accidents with the help of a systematic array of historical documents. The users’ appeals to the Internet-portal through page of Rosgydromet are recorded in the Journal of events. It tells about the expediency of this work. Address of electronic archive is following: http://rb.mchs.gov.ru/rosgidromet/Archive. The link of reference services is following: http://rb.mchs.gov.ru/rosgidromet/rg_spravochnie_uslugi.