Kola reindeer herder measured by Finns

Experts from the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and from the Department of Radiochemistry of the University of Helsinki travelled in August 1994 to Lovozero in the Kola peninsula, Russia, to study the local radioactivity contents. The purpose of the study, which formed a part of the science and technology cooperation programme between Finland and Russia, was to compare activity levels in Kola and in Finnish Lapland, in the food chain between lichen, reindeer and people. By means of samples taken from nature, the study group also determined the composition of fallout from nuclear weapons tests and from the Chernobyl accident. Using a whole-body counting system, the experts measured 33 people from Lovozero. Samples were collected, for instance, of reindeer meat, lichen and the bottom sediment of Lovozero lake. On the basis of preliminary findings, it seems that the levels of radiocesium do ALARA 1/1995. (orig.)