Radiological Consequences of Global Fallouts of Nuclear Explosion Products over the USSR Territory in 1966–1986

Nuclear tests have resulted in a comprehensive global environmental contamination with radioactive substances, primarily with such biologically significant ones as 90Sr and 137Cs. By the time of systematic nuclear testing, the world science has already accumulated a certain experience in investigating the consequences of radiation impact on human beings (occupational exposure, medical exposure, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, etc). However, a new source of radiation effects, i.e. environmental contamination and, hence, food contamination, resulted in a systematic internal and external irradiation at low dose rates of practically the entire population of the Earth that required comprehensive, broad-scale investigations of potential hazards of global fallouts.