Previous discharges of radioactivity from Mayak Production Association plant in Urals, Russia have resulted in considerable radionuclide contamination of the Techa River, and consequent high radiation doses during the late 1940s and 1950s to residents of villages along the Techa River. The most contaminated villages were evacuated in the period 1954 - 1962.

The aim of the SOUL project is to quantify risks of late health effects associated with low-dose rate exposure to plutonium, strontium and external gamma radiation. This will be done by improving, updating and analysing dosimetric and health data for the Mayak worker cohort (MWC), the extended Techa River cohort (ETRC) and the Techa River offspring cohort (TROC).

Although SOUL is expected to give significant input to the understanding of radiation risks, Southern Urals radiation risk research has to be continued beyond the project mainly because a longer follow-up is needed to fully quantify lifetime risks. Part of the work in SOUL is dedicated to supporting such future analyses.

A large part of the funds requested is allocated for emerging and existing gaps within the Southern Urals radiation risk research.

SOUL is an integrated, multi-disciplinary project with an active participation of dosimetrists, operational health physicists, statisticians and epidemiologists. The research is fully coordinated with work being carried out in the Russian-American collaboration.