Nature, our neighbour

As in previous years, environmental protection at Paks Nuclear Power Plant includes several tasks: monitoring the radioactive emissions of the power plant, determining its intensity and content, and continuously supervising the circumstances of natural and artificial radiation in the environment.
The monitoring of the emissions is carried out with the help of a thoroughly elaborated measurement program, on the basis of which our experts can get a more and more complete picture about the physical and chemical parameters of the radioactive components that have got out into the environment. After the evaluation of the measurement results of a whole year, it can be stated that the airborne as well as the liquid emissions have remained at a low level, way below the limits determined by the radiation protection regulations. Moreover, if we analyze these results in comparison with international results, it becomes clear that the emissions do not reach the average of the international data concerning the energy production of similar power plants.
The laboratorial testing of a large number of natural samples (such as grass, soil, milk, fish, surface and subsoil water) have been added to the measurement results of the operating long-distance measuring stations. The measurement techniques and sample-taking and -processing methods that we apply have made it possible to calculate even the lowest radioactive concentrations. The measurements attested that the nuclear power plant has not had a directly measurable effect on the radiation circumstances of the environment. Consequently, the radiation dose that the residents are exposed to because of the emissions is approximately one thousandth of the authority limit, and one ten-thousandth of the radiation dose originating from natural background radiation.
The implementation of a radiation protection indicator system – very similar to the one operating in Kalocsa for years – in Paks and Uszód made possible the continuous flow of information towards the residents in order to broaden their knowledge on nuclear energy production. This device allows us to follow the changes of the natural background radiation, which then can be compared to the data collected before the power plant started to function about the radiation circumstances of the environment.
This nuclear power plant run by responsible skilled experts is a clean and environmentally friendly establishment. It does not consume oxygen and emits no carbon-dioxide, sulfur-dioxide, nitrogen-oxides, dust, scale or cinder. It does not contribute to the growth of the greenhouse effect, the cause of global warming.