title: The transport and fluvial redistribution of Chernobyl-derived radiocaesium within the River Wye basin, UK
Author: J.S. Rowan, D.E. Walling
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 121, 30 June 1992, Pages 109-131
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-9697(92)90310-O
Keywords: Wye; Chernobyl; radiocaesium; sediment-associated; redistribution
Abstract: Relatively little attention has been given to the long term prospect of fluvial transport processes redistributing Chernobyl-derived radiocaesium within the UK. Work undertaken within the Wye basin, central Wales, demonstrates a complex distribution of fallout at the catchment scale, with the bulk of the deposition concentrated in a narrow north-south band, situated in the west central areas of the basin, which contained in excess of 1500 Bq m−2 of 134Cs. Fluvial transport and redistribution of this material was demonstrated by river sampling during the winter of 1988/89, when the radiocaesium content of suspended sediment transported by the River Wye (≈ 30–50 mBq g−1 of 137Cs) remained 3–5-times higher than pre-Chernobyl levels. Floodplain reaches displayed variable levels of secondary contamination, dependent upon the upstream supply of radiocaesium and local morphological controls. Accordingly, the highest 134Cs inventories within the basin (> 6000 Bq m−2) were associated with rapidly accreting floodplain sites. A number of these sites experienced only limited amounts of direct atmospheric fallout. The importance of fluvial redistribution as a secondary contamination mechanism is thus highlighted.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/004896979290310O
Title: Inflow of Chernobyl 90Sr to the Black Sea from the Dnepr River
Author: Gennady G. Polikarpov, Hugh D. Livingston, Ludmilla G. Kulebakina, Ken O. Buesseler, Nikolai A. Stokozov, Susan A. Casso
Reference: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Volume 34, Issue 3, March 1992, Pages 315-320
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7714(05)80087-3
Keywords: Chernobyl; 90Sr; Dnepr River; Black Sea
Abstract: Following the Chernobyl reactor accident in April 1986, studies of radionuclides in aquatic systems in general, and in the Black Sea in particular, have focused primarily on the fate and behaviour of direct fallout deposition (Buesseler et al., in press; Livingston et al., 1988; Polikarpov et al., 1991). In this paper we present an evaluation of riverine 90Sr input and its use as a tracer for circulation studies of Chernobyl labelled shelf waters. We describe how 90Sr measurements in the Dnepr River in the period 1986–89 can be used to determine the amount and timing of the subsequent 90Sr inflow to the northwest Black Sea. Comparison of these data with measurements made in the Danube River in 1988 demonstrates that the Dnepr 90Sr flux to the Black Sea is about one order of magnitude higher than that of the Danube.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771405800873
Title: A long-range dispersion model evaluation study with Chernobyl data
Author: Franco Desiato
Reference: Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, Volume 26, Issue 15, October 1992, Pages 2805-2820
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0960-1686(92)90018-G
Keywords: Chernobyl accident; long-range dispersion; model evaluation; sensitivity analysis
Abstract: The Chernobyl accident outlined the need for improving the capability of the real-time estimate of long-range atmospheric dispersion and provided an opportunity to test numerical models against the radiological data collected over Europe. The APOLLO model, which became recently operational in the Accidental Release Impact Evaluation System (ARIES) at ENEA-DISP, has been tested based on meteorological and radiological data made available during and after the joint IAEA/CEC/WMO Atmospheric Transport Model Evaluation Study (ATMES). In the present paper a model evaluation and a sensitivity test with respect to the mixing depth and horizontal diffusion parameterizations are presented. The quantities involved in the validation are Cs-137 air concentrations paired in space and time, time-integrated concentrations and time of arrival of the cloud at each locality. The results show that the treatment of space and time variability of the mixing depth improves the model estimates, and that a linear trend in time of the horizontal dispersion coefficient gives better results than a square-root trend in terms of scattering between observed and computed values.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096016869290018G
Title: Plankton as an indicator of the temporal variation of the Chernobyl fallout
Author: O. Ravera, L. Giannoni
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 172, Issues 2–3, 30 November 1995, Pages 119-125
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-9697(95)04821-9
Keywords: Plankton; Radionuclides; Chernobyl; Lake Monate, Italy; Lake Comabbio, Italy
Abstract: Here we describe the pattern of radionuclide activities (iodine-131; cesium-134; cesium-137; ruthenium-106) in net-plankton and water samples collected from two lakes in Northern Italy (Lake Monate and Lake Comabbio) during and after the presence in the area of the radioactive cloud from the Chernobyl accident: from 30 April to 3 September 1986. The results show that, because of its short lifespan, plankton is a good indicator of daily variations of environmental contamination. The contamination level of plankton depends on various factors, such as the speciation and biological role of the radionuclide, the community structure and chemical characteristics of the water.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048969795048219
Title: Histological changes in Pinus sylvestris L. in the proximal-zone around the Chernobyl power plant
Author: Lavrans Skuterud, Natalia I. Goltsova, Roger Næumann, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Tore Lindmo
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 157, 11 December 1994, Pages 387-397
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-9697(94)90602-5
Keywords: Histology; Pine trees; Radiation doses; Effects; Radioactivity; Chernobyl
Abstract: In September 1990, samples of wood and bark were collected from Pinus sylvestris L. at three locations exposed to different levels of radioactive fallout from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP). Cross-sections of wood from the most exposed location showed a distinct change in histology in the annual ring of 1986, a consequence of the accident on 26 April. The width of annual rings decreased after the accident, and the relative width of latewood in annual rings increased transiently in 1986 and subsequently decreased in 1987. In 1987, an increase in the number of vertical resin ducts was observed, related to contamination at the location, and the number of radial rays decreased at the two locations of higher contamination. The radionuclide content in the bark was found to correlate with the degree of damage in the wood. There are several hypotheses about the contribution from various types
of radioactive contamination, but the results indicate that both ‘cloud γ’ and deposited radioactivity (β and γ) were of importance. The present work suggests that detailed studies of dose-effect relationships after exposure to different dose rates and radiation qualities may establish the usefulness of pine trees as in situ, time-recording differential dosimeters of ionizing radiation.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048969794906025
Title: A fast long-range transport model for operational use in episode simulation. Application to the Chernobyl accident
Author: P. Bonelli, G. Calori, G. Finzi
Reference: Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, Volume 26, Issue 14, October 1992, Pages 2523-2535
DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0960-1686(92)90104-S,
Keywords: Long-range; modelling; trajectories; dispersion; radioisotopes; Chernobyl; nuclear; accident
Abstract: A simple Lagrangian puff trajectory model and its software implementation, STRALE, are described. Standard meteorological data are used as input for the simulation of the three-dimensional atmospheric transport and dispersion of a pollutant released by a point source. The schemes adopted to describe the vertical diffusion and the interaction with the mixing layer are discussed on the basis of the comparison between simulated and measured 137Cs activities for the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096016869290104S
Title: Changes in the forms of 137Cs and its availability for plants as dependent on properties of fallout after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident
Author: N.I. Sanzharova, S.V. Fesenko, R.M. Alexakhin, V.S. Anisimov, V.K. Kuznetsov, L.G. Chernyayeva
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 154, Issue 1, 1 September 1994, Pages 9-22
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-9697(94)90609-2
Keywords: Chernobyl NPP; Radionuclide; Forms in soil; Availability; Transfer factor; Ecological half line
Abstract: The dynamics of exchangeable and acid soluble 137Cs content in soils, as well as 137Cs transfer factors for natural vegetation were studied for different sites within a 50-km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the 1986 accident. Changes in 137Cs forms in soils during the 6 years after the accidental release of radioactive substances and availability of this radionuclide to plants at that time were dependent on the character of radioactive fallout (fuel particles, aerosols of different dispersion) and soil type. Transformation of different 137Cs species in soils with time after the accident was observed (destruction of fuel particles, ageing of 137Cs and changes in the 137Cs sorption strength of the soil solid phase). Behaviour of 137Cs in the ‘near’ and ‘remote’ zones was different. The content of exchangeable 137Cs in soils was found to have decreased after the accident. The average half-life of 137Cs in grass stand in dry meadow in the ‘remote’ zone is 3.5 years, and in the second (slower) period after the accident, this half-life for 137Cs will amount to about 17 years. The 137Cs transfer factors for peaty swamped soils were 3.7–6.6 times as high as for soils of automorphous series.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0048969794906092
Title: Territory contamination with the radionuclides representing the fuel component of Chernobyl fallout
Author: V.A Kashparov, S.M Lundin, S.I Zvarych, V.I Yoshchenko, S.E Levchuk, Y.V Khomutinin, I.M Maloshtan, V.P Protsak
Reference: Science of The Total Environment, Volume 317, Issues 1–3, 30 December 2003, Pages 105-119
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0048-9697(03)00336-X
Keywords: Chernobyl accident; Terrestrial density of contamination; Plutonium; Radioactive fallout; Fuel particles
Abstract: The data obtained through a series of experiments were used to specify the correlation of activities of the fuel component radionuclides of Chernobyl fallout and to create the maps of the 30-km Chernobyl zone terrestrial density of contamination with 154Eu, 238Pu, 239+240Pu and 241Am (on 01.01.2000). In the year 2000, total inventories of the fuel component radionuclides in the upper 30-cm soil layer of the 30-km Chernobyl zone in Ukraine (outside the ChNPP industrial site, excluding the activity located in the radioactive waste storages and in the cooling pond) were estimated as: 90Sr—7.7×1014 Bq; 137Cs—2.8×1015 Bq; 154Eu—1.4×1013 Bq; 238Pu—7.2×1012 Bq; 239+240Pu—1.5×1013 Bq; 241Am—1.8×1013 Bq. These values correspond to 0.4–0.5% of their amounts in the ChNPP unit 4 at the moment of the accident. The current estimate is 3 times lower than the previous widely-cited estimates. Inventories of the fuel component radionuclides were also estimated in other objects within the 30-km zone and outside it. This allowed more accurate data to be obtained on the magnitude of a relative release of radionuclides in the fuel particles (FP) matrix during the Chernobyl accident outside the ChNPP industrial site. It amounts to 1.5±0.5% of these radionuclides in the reactor, which is 2 times lower than the previous estimates. Two-thirds of the radionuclides release in the FP was deposited on the territory of Ukraine.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896970300336X
Title: Empirical scavenging coefficients of radioactive substances released from chernobyl
Author: Kirsti Jylhä
Reference: Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, Volume 25, Issue 2, 1991, Pages 263-270
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0960-1686(91)90297-K
Keywords: Chernobyl; radioactive fallout; wet scavenging coefficient; weather radar; Finland
Abstract: After the accident at the Chernobyl power plant on 26 April 1986, most parts of Europe were affected by the associated radiation pollution. In this paper the dependence of the precipitation scavenging coefficient λ (s−1) on the rainfall rate R (mm h−1) is studied on the basis of radioactivity and radar rainfall measurements in Southern Finland after the accident.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096016869190297K
Title: Simulation of the chernobyl radioactive cloud over Europe using the eurad model
Author: H. Hass, M. Memmesheimer, H. Geiβ, H.J. Jakobs, M. Laube, A. Ebel
Reference: Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, Volume 24, Issue 3, 1990, Pages 673-692
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0960-1686(90)90022-F
Keywords: Forecast; accidental release; Chernobyl; long-range transport; deposition; radionuclides
Abstract: The opean cid eposition Model (EURAD) is used to investigate the long-range transport (LRT) and deposition of radioactive material in Europe during the first week after the Chernobyl accident. Emphasis is laid on using the model system in a forecast mode as possibly would be done shortly after such an event. Thus, meteorological fields are predicted with the PSU/NCAR mososcale model MM4.The multilayer Eulerian model CTM ( hemistry ransport ) is applied to compute transport and deposition of Cs-137 and I-131 using the predicted meteorological fields. However, the accident scenario was estimated using published data. The model results and performance are discussed by comparison with observations. It is demonstrated that the model can reproduce certain observed characteristics of the radioactive cloud, i.e. trends in surface air concentrations, arrival times and wet deposition patterns. This leads to the suggestion that the predictive capability of the EURAD-system has a relatively high level considering the fact that several simple approaches were used.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/096016869090022F
