Initial Approaches to the Establishment of a Russian Data Bank on Nuclear Explosions and Compatibility with Similar Foreign Data Banks

Abstract

Nuclear-weapons tests and peaceful nuclear explosions, which had been conducted over the territory of the former USSR for 40 years, enabled the collection of a huge volume of information about the explosion parameters and radioactive contamination of natural environments. Presently, the information is being shared by various institutions that took part in the nuclear tests. The information is generally used for solving individual applied problems related to the studies of the consequences of nuclear tests. The relevant computerized data banks, which are being set up, are of an applied nature, i.e., they are oriented towards a limited number of applied programs. A unified Russian computer-aided information system on this problem does not exist. At the same time, the recently heightened public concern about medico-radiological, radioactivity and environmental consequences of nuclear explosions requires that the range of applied problems, which were not planned previously, should be expanded. This means that the above information system should be based on the data bank (DB) concept. An integrated topical DB (rather than an applied data base), i.e., a data base describing the area under study rather than individual applications, should provide the foundation for the above-mentioned data bank.