Assessment of the total effective dose of miners in the underground Rozna Uranium Mine in the Czech Republic during the period 2004-2009

The paper discusses the situation in the Czech Republic regarding past and present uranium mining activities with emphasis on the evaluation of the exposure of underground miners in the Rozna Uranium Mine, which is currently the only active mine in the country and practically in the entire European Union. The total effective dose has been summarised taking into account all three major components, namely radon short-lived decay products, long-lived alpha emitters in ore dust and penetrating external gamma radiation. The average and maximum values of the effective dose as well as the collective effective dose of underground miners are also presented. The purpose of the paper is to document the miners' exposures during a period of 6 years in a uranium mine where conditions including the ore grade and methods of mining showed recently some changes that may affect the individual components of the total effective dose. (authors)