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PubMed1996

Modelling the Chernobyl radioactive fallout (I): A fractal approach in northern Italy.

This paper deals with the 137Cs airborne radioactive concentration measured in Northern Italy after the Chernobyl accident. We devised a fractal model to aid in describing the space-time distribution of radioactivity. The model is based on the Fractal Sum of Pulses theory, involving additive stochastic processes. We use, as input source of information, the parametrization of the time trend of radioactive concentration in a few Italian Provinces we calculated in previous work. The results look promising, since realistic scenarios of environmental pollution are produced.

Air Pollutants, Radioactive↗
PubMed2000

Radiocaesium and radiostrontium uptake by fruit bodies of Pleurotus eryngii via mycelium, soil and aerial absorption.

There has been an extraordinary increase in interest concerning the transfer of radioactive contamination to the fruit bodies of fungi since the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. These investigations, however, have focused exclusively on field studies aimed fundamentally at quantifying the behaviour of the radiocaesium component of the contamination. The results have shown great variability. As a contribution towards this body of knowledge, we have made a comparative study of the temporal evolution of the transfer of 85Sr and 134Cs via three routes of radioactive contamination--from the mycelium, from the surface layer of the soil, and directly onto the caps of the fruit bodies--for the saprophyte species, Pleurotus eryngii, under controlled laboratory conditions. The results indicate that the last of the above three uptake routes is the most efficient, and that the temporal evolution of the transfer is closely related to the radionuclide and the radioactive contamination route being considered.

Air Pollutants, Radioactive↗
PubMed1984

[Leakage of gaseous 125I during radioiodination using Na125I].

Gaseous 125I was present at 48 +/- 33 and 122 +/- 15 kBq in Na125I vials (74 MBq) purchased from Amersham and New England Nuclear, respectively. Gaseous 125I leaked to the amount of 37 +/- 22 and 130 +/- 67 kBq during radioiodination by the chloramine-T and the enzymatic methods using 18.5 MBq Na125I, respectively. Radioactive wastes from radioiodination using 18.5 MBq Na125I evolved about 5.5 kBq of gaseous 125I in first day of storage.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Remarks on the use of of several physical values in standards of radiation safety, health regulations and other documents].

The levels of radioactive substances in all standard documents and special literature is expressed by the rate of their disintegration, which is not correct. The main indicator of radioactive danger is surface pollution (for example, in Bq/km2). But pollution of surface can be uneven and in some places dangerous. Recommendations to correction of the matter are offered.

Air Pollution, Radioactive↗
PubMed2002

Influence of dust loading on the alpha-particle energy resolution of continuous air monitors for thin deposits of radioactive aerosols.

Alpha-particle continuous air monitors must sometimes be operated in dusty environments where significant dust loading of the filter can be anticipated. It is important to understand how this dust loading affects the response of the continuous air monitors. Not only must a filter be changed if there is a reduction in airflow, but a change may be necessary if the energy resolution deteriorates and the continuous air monitor loses sensitivity and specificity for the radioactive aerosols of interest. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate alpha-particle energy resolution of continuous air monitor filters, particularly under dust loading conditions. Aerosol particles of various sizes were tagged with radon decay products to serve as surrogates for radioactive aerosols of interest such as plutonium or uranium. While the size of radioactive aerosols, filter type, and dust type affected the energy resolution, the thickness of an underlying (nonradioactive) dust layer did not show significant effect for the materials studied and a loading range of 0.01-10 mg x cm(-2). Our results indicate that it is possible for continuous air monitors to detect the release of radioactive aerosols with little deterioration in energy resolution under conditions of significant dust loading provided that the deposited layer of radioactive aerosols remains thin (< or = 0.1 mg x cm(-2)).

Aerosols↗
PubMed2003

Modeling variability and uncertainty associated with inhaled weapons-grade PuO2.

The work presented relates to developing a stochastic version of the ICRP 66 respiratory tract deposition model and applying the stochastic model to characterize the variability/uncertainty associated with inhaled PuO2 for a hypothetical population of nuclear workers engaged in light work-related exercise. The parameter uncertainty/variability distributions used are essentially the same as the FORTRAN-based stochastic deposition model of Bolch et al. known as LUDUC (LUng Dose Uncertainty Code). Based on Crystal Ball software, this stochastic deposition model includes particle polydispersity, which Bolch et al. did not discuss. This paper first compares model-simulated regional deposition probability distributions to deterministic results based on LUDEP (LUng Dose Evaluation Program) software, which implements the ICRP 66 deterministic deposition model. For these comparisons, a particle density of 3 g cm(-3) (for hypothetical radioactive particles) was used. The range of possible depositions generated by LUDUC and the Crystal Ball program results revealed LUDEP's limitations. Even though LUDEP tends to use parameters that represent average parameter values for adult males, it overestimates deposition in the lower regions of the lung for most of the population. The Crystal Ball program was then used to generate radioactivity intake distributions for single and multiple PuO2 particle intakes by a hypothetical population of nuclear workers for the stochastic intake (STI) paradigm. These distributions of radioactivity intake are evaluated for the five primary regions of the respiratory tract as defined in the ICRP Publication 66. The results reveal that when a particle has been deposited, the radioactivity is likely to be low if it is in the lower regions (< 10 Bq for the bb and AI regions), but it may be quite large in the upper regions (as much as 600 Bq for the ET1, and ET2 regions), and the distributions for radioactivity become less and less skewed to the right, as particles penetrate deeper within the respiratory tract.

Administration, Inhalation↗
PubMed2003

Resuspension: decadal monitoring time series of the anthropogenic radioactivity deposition in Japan.

Monthly atmospheric depositions of (90)Sr and (137)Cs have been observed at the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI), Tsukuba, Japan. This study reports temporal trends and levels of (90)Sr and (137)Cs depositions in the 1990s. Although the current (90)Sr and (137)Cs concentrations declined dramatically, they have been found continuously in the deposition samples throughout the 1990s. During this period, the annual (90)Sr ((137)Cs) deposits at MRI ranged from 70-180 (140-350) mBq/m(2)/year. With a sufficiently long time series, the decreasing trend of the deposition evidently differs from the past stratospheric fallout; it is far slower. Thus, reservoirs other than the stratosphere provide small amounts of (90)Sr and (137)Cs to the atmosphere. A simple calculation clearly refutes the significance of the ocean as a potential source of airborne anthropogenic radioactivity. We will demonstrate that these radionuclides in the deposited materials originate from resuspension processes (soil dust suspension processes). The temporal trends of the time series monitoring reveal differences from those in the UNSCEAR Report 2000, which were predicted by a model that disregarded resuspension. The specific activity of (90)Sr ((137)Cs) in the annual depositions exhibited a 10-year (20-year) half-life. Those data were comparable with values reported in the literature for the half-residence time (HRT) of (90)Sr and (137)Cs in Japanese surface soils. They were also comparable to those calculated from nationwide data of (90)Sr and (137)Cs concentrations in the surface soil (0-10 cm) obtained from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Environmental Radiation Database (the MEXT Database). Regarding the activity ratio of (137)Cs/(90)Sr, the Japanese nationwide surface soil data collected during the 1990s in the MEXT Database (median: 5.3, n = 584) did not accord with that in the deposition samples (average: 2.1, n = 82) at MRI. This supports our previous hypothesis that Asian dust may transport a large fraction of anthropogenic radioactivity into the Japanese atmosphere. We need to study the fate of long-lived anthropogenic radioactivity dispersed in the environment over greater spatial and temporal scales.

Air Pollutants, Radioactive↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The radioecological problems of Eurasia and the sources of radioactive environmental contamination in the former USSR].

There is three major sites of radioactive environmental contamination in the former USSR: the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals, Chernobyl NPP in Ukraine and Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean. The first mentioned is the most important with regard to local (potential) contamination, the last one dominates the global contamination. A number of sites and sources are less well known with regard to environmental contamination. This is thus the case for the plutonium production factories at Tomsk and Dodonovo. More information on nuclear reactors in lost or dumped submarines is also needed. From a global point of view reliable assessment of the radioactive run-off from land and deposits of nuclear waste in the Arctic Ocean are in particular pertinent.

Accidents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Radioactivity in municipal sewage and sludge.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the environmental consequences of discharges of radioactivity from a large medical research facility into municipal sewage, specifically 131I activity in sewage sludge, and the radiation exposures to workers and the public when sludges are incinerated. METHODS: The authors measured radioactivity levels in the sludge at the Ann Arbor, Michigan, Waste Water Treatment Plant following radioiodine treatments of two patients at the University of Michigan hospital complex and performed a series of calculations to estimate potential radiation doses due to releases of 131I from incineration of sewage sludge. RESULTS: Approximately 1.1% of the radioactive 131I administered therapeutically to patients was measured in the primary sludge. Radiation doses from incineration of sludge were calculated to be 0.048 millirem (mrem) for a worker during a period in which the incinerator filtration system failed, a condition that could be considered to represent maximum exposure conditions, for two nine-hour days. Calculated results for a more typically exposed worker (with the filtration system in operation and a 22-week period of incineration) yielded a committed effective dose equivalent of 0.066 mrem. If a worker were exposed to both conditions during the period of incineration, the dose was calculated to be 0.11 mrem. For a member of the public, the committed effective dose equivalent was calculated as 0.003 mrem for a 22-week incineration period. Exposures to both workers and the public were a very small fraction of a typical annual dose (about 100 mrem excluding radon, or 300 mrem with radon) due to natural background radiation. Transport time to the treatment plant for radioiodine was found to be much longer than that of a normal sewage, possibly due to absorption of iodine by organic material in the sewer lines. The residence time of radioiodine in the sewer also appears to be longer than expected. CONCLUSION: 131I in land-applied sludge presents few health concerns because sufficient decay occurs before it can reach the public however, incineration, which is done in winter months, directly releases the 131I from sewage sludge to the atmosphere, and even though exposures to both workers and the public were found to be considerably lower than 1% of natural background, incineration of sludge in a pathway for public exposure. Although 131I was readily measurable in sewage sludge, only about 1% of the radioione administered to patients was found in the sludge. The fate of the remaining radioactivity has not been established; some may be in secondary and tertiary residuals, but it is quite likely that most passed through the plant and was discharged in dilute concentrations in plant emissions. The behavior of radioiodine and other radioactive materials released into municipal seweage systems, such as those from large medical facilities, is not yet well understood.

Air Pollutants, Radioactive↗
PubMed1984

The use of mosses as indicators of airborne radionuclides near a major nuclear installation.

Samples of naturally growing moss (mainly Pseudoscleropodium purum and Hypnum cupressiforme ) were used to investigate the distribution of photon-emitting radionuclides, notably 129I , 137Cs, 144Ce and 241Am, at distances up to 12 km from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield in West Cumbria . The relative activities of the naturally occurring radionuclides, 7Be and 210Pb, in moss and air indicated that the removal half-time of these radionuclides on moss is very long (best estimate of half-time, corrected for radioactive decay, was 240 days) and that the mosses are very efficient collectors of airborne particulates (product of deposition velocity and interception factor was 2.4 X 10(-2) ms-1). Hence the activities of artificially-produced radionuclides on the mosses present an effective record of local airborne radionuclide pollution integrated over a number of years. The activity of 210Pb in each sample was used to standardize the activities of artificial radionuclides in the samples. It was found that the activity ratio of 129I /210Pb, 137Cs/210Pb and 144Ce/210Pb declined with distance from Sellafield indicating that the major local source of these radionuclides has been material discharged to air from the site. The activity ratio of 241Am/210Pb declined with distance from the site and also with distance from the sea confirming that the resuspension of material originally discharged to sea is an important local source of 241Am.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1998

Measurement of resuspended aerosol in the Chernobyl area. Part II. Size distribution of radioactive particles.

Size distribution measurements of particulate radionuclides were performed at two sites in the Chernobyl 30-km exclusion zone using several cascade impactors. The results obtained in the period September 1986 till June 1993 were discussed with regard to the general assumption of a log-normal activity size distribution in inhalation dose assessment. At Zapolie (a site 14 km from the Chernobyl reactor) a bimodal distribution was observed in 91% of all measured distributions. In most cases the medians were about 4 microns and in the range 20-30 microns. According to soil granulometric data this finding was explained by superimposing two processes: local resuspension and advective transport of radioactive aerosol from highly contaminated territories. The mean air concentration showed an increasing proportion of inhalable particles over the years since the accident. In 1993 the inhalable fraction was about 48% of the total concentration. At Pripyat, a site situated within a highly contaminated area, unimodal types of size distributions were predominant with the median diameters in the range 5-10 microns for 137Cs. For the three nuclides 137Cs, 144Ce and 106Ru, very similar types of distribution were observed. Apparently, the radioactive aerosol was of fuel origin. During a forest fire at a distance of 17 km, the majority of the radioactivity was associated with submicrometer particles with median diameters in the range 0.28-0.50 micron.

Aerosols↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Methods of calculation of radionuclide transfer as a result of fires in the Chernobyl zone].

In spring 1994 by fires in 30-km zone of ChNPP it was fixed the increasing of radioactive products of burning concentration in the air and densities of its losses at the track of a smoke train in comparison with usual conditions. The model of the atmospheric transfer of radioactive aerosols and smoke particles is offered. It is shown that fires in this zone result in increasing of internal exposure doze.

Aerosols↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Radio-ecological and hygienic assessment of consequences of forest fires in the areas polluted during the Chernobyl accident].

Retransfer of radionuclides on the condensation trails of Chernobyl radioactive fallouts during forest fires has been experimentally evaluated and their mathematical transfer model verified. It has been shown that radionuclide retransfer will make no great impact on additional pollution of an area even under the most unfavourable conditions. The contribution of convective and non-convective components of transfer to the formation of a radioactive aerosol concentration field has been assessed. Time course of changes in the concentration of radioactive aerosol and its dispersive composition are shown in different phases of fire and at different distance from its source.

Aerosols↗