Title: Downward migration of radiocaesium in organic soils across a transect in Scotland
Author: Shand, C.A.; Rosén, K.; Thored, K.; Wendler, R.; Hillier, S.
Reference: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. Jan2013, Vol. 115, p124-133. 10p.
doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2012.08.003.
Keywords: Chernobyl; Clay minerals; Pollution; Radioactivity; X-ray diffraction; 137Cs
Abstract: ► In 1986 the Chernobyl accident contaminated soils across Europe with 137Cs. ► In 2008/2010 we measured 137Cs in 8 peaty soils from a transect across Scotland. ► The 137Cs activities were between 2.8 and 14.4 kBq m−2, decay corrected to 1986. ► The mean migration depths of 137Cs were between 8.2 and 17.4 cm. ► Clay minerals alone in the soils did not control the downward migration of 137Cs.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X12002020
Title: EUR02_4_3_Health_Consequences_chernobyl.doc
Author: M. Tirmarche O. Catelinois
Reference: [PDF-96K]Aug 2008 Assessment of the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident in France
Abstract: During the last years, several reports in the media and the publication of a map of environmental radioactive contamination spots linked to the Chernobyl fallout in France rose the concern of a potential public health effect in French populations. Several thyroid cancer patients are convinced that their disease is related to the radioactive fallout of 1986. Thyroid cancer is a rare disease : in 2000, it represents approximately 1.5 % of new incident cancers in France. This incidence has been multiplied by 5.2 in men and 2.7 in women during the last 20 years. French health authorities asked IRSN to test the feasibility of an epidemiological study able to demonstrate a link between Chernobyl and thyroid cancer increase in France. …
URL: http://www.eurosafe-forum.org/files/euro2_4_3_health_consequences_chernobyl.pdf
Title: Remote sensing the radionuclide contaminated Belarusian landscape: a potential for imaging spectrometry?
Author: Boyd, D. S.; Entwistle, J. A.; Flowers, A. G.; Armitage, R. P.; Goldsmith, P. C.
Reference: International Journal of Remote Sensing. 5/20/2006, Vol. 27 Issue 10, p1865-1874. 10p. 2
doi: 10.1080/01431160500328355.
Keywords: REMOTE sensing; RADIOISOTOPES; LANDSCAPES; SPECTROMETRY; CHERNOBYL Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl, Ukraine, 1986; BELARUS
Abstract: The 1986 Chernobyl accident resulted in radionuclide contamination (dominated by 137 Cs) across large areas of Belarus. Consequences of this accident continue to affect Belarus long after initial contamination, which in turn has placed strain upon social, economic and political infrastructures. One method to reduce this strain and remediate contamination is to return areas of land no longer posing a risk, back to an appropriate use. As a method of remediation, this requires regular and accurate monitoring of the landscape at which existing ground based techniques have not been entirely well‐suited. Remote sensing, specifically the use of imaging spectrometry offers the potential to monitor the Belarusian landscape at opportune spatial and temporal resolutions. Vegetation has been shown to be an important agent in the cycling of radioactive isotopes in the environment and therefore a useful indicator of radionuclide contamination.
URL:http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tandf/tres/2006/00000027/00000010/art00001
Title: Ecological disaster area: The Chernobyl case study.
Author: Kolbasov, Oleg S.
Reference: Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review. Spring92, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p637. 4p.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11166-007-9016-7
Keywords: CHERNOBYL Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl, Ukraine, 1986
Abstract: The accident at the Chernobyl atomic power station on April 26, 1986, was dangerous and vast, with long-term adverse consequences. It now is viewed as one of the national disasters of the century. The most significant damage resulting from the accident was the radioactive contamination of an enormous amount of territory, where conditions became harmful to life. Equally damaging have been the losses and discomforts that residents of the contaminated areas have endured. The incident gave rise to the necessity of developing a special legal regime for the damaged territories and creating a new legal institute to defend people in the Chernobyl “ecological disaster area”. Without considering all of the circumstances and consequences of the Chernobyl accident, I would like to describe in brief the essential factual and legal features of the Chernobyl ecological disaster area.
URL: Academic Search Premier
Title: Neutron- and photon-activation detection limits in breast milk analysis for prospective dose evaluation of the suckling infant.
Author: Tsipenyuk, Yu.M.; Firsov, V.I.; Cantone, M.C.
Reference: Applied Radiation & Isotopes. Jan2009, Vol. 67 Issue 1, p152-154. 3p.
doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2008.07.019.
Keywords: Photon-activation analysis; Neutron-activation analysis; Microtron; Detection limits
Abstract: Complex situations related to the environment, as in the regions affected by the Chernobyl accident and regions in which nuclear weapons testing were undertaken, as in Semipalatinsk, could be reflected in the trace element content in mothers’ milk. The evaluation of fractional transfer to milk of ingested or inhaled activity and of the corresponding dose coefficients for the infant, following a mothers’ radioactive intake, can take advantage from wide-ranging studies of elemental and radionuclide contents in mothers’ milk. In this work the possibility to determine elements, such as Ru, Zr, Nb, Te, Ce, Th, U, in milk powder has been investigated. Although results from elemental analyses of breast milk are to be found in the literature, the determination of the identified elements has attracted poor attention since they are not considered essential elements from a biological point of view. Nevertheless, in the case of radioactive releases to the environment, such data could be of interest in evaluation of dose to the breast-fed infant.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969804308004053
Title: The low-dose phenomenon: How bystander effects, genomic instability, and adaptive responses could transform cancer-risk models.
Author: Hill, Colin K.
Reference: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. May2012, Vol. 68 Issue 3, p51-58. 8p.
doi: 10.1177/0096340212444874.
Keywords: adaptive response, bystander effect, cancer risk, genomic instability, low dose, non-targeted effect, radiation
Abstract: From the atomic bomb dropped over Japan to nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, there is strong public demand for information on the cancer risks from radiation exposure. In this article, the author explores some of the biological phenomenon that could alter or confirm current concepts of low-dose effects. Reviewing bystander effects, adaptive responses, and genomic instability, the author writes that these phenomena could revolutionize conventional understanding of how to approach cancer risk assessments in low-dose, possibly protracted, environments. Though current consensus supports a linear no-threshold model, evidence suggests that these biological responses just may overturn that thinking.
URL: http://bos.sagepub.com/content/68/3.toc
Title: Determining the Chernobyl impact on sediments of a pre-Alpine lake with a very comprehensive set of data.
Author: Erlinger, Ch.; Lettner, H.; Hubmer, A.; Hofmann, W.; Steinhäusler, F.
Reference: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. Aug2008, Vol. 99 Issue 8, p1294-1301. 8p.
doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2008.03.012.
Keywords: 137Cs; 90Sr; 239+240Pu; 210Pb; Lake sediment; Radionuclide; Sediment dating; Chernobyl
Abstract: Man-made and natural radionuclides in Lake Wallersee were determined in the pre-Alpine environment at the northern slope of the Alps, which was heavily affected by the Chernobyl fallout in May 1986. The objective of this study was to get knowledge of location and quantity of man-made radionuclide input (especially 137Cs) generated in the Chernobyl accident to lake sediments.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X08000568
Title: Short and long term dispersion patterns of radionuclides in the atmosphere around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Author: Leelossy, A.; Me´sza´ros, R.; Lagzi, I.
Reference: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Dec. 2011, vol.102, no.12, pp. 1117-21
doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.07.010
Keywords: air pollution ; atmospheric movements ; fission reactor accidents ; Gaussian processes ; radioactive pollution ; statistical analysis ; toxicology
Abstract: The Chernobyl accident and unfortunately the recent accident at the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant are the most serious accidents in the history of the nuclear technology and industry. Both of them have a huge and prolonged impact on environment as well as human health. Therefore, any technological developments and strategies that could diminish the consequences of such unfortunate events are undisputedly the most important issues of research. Numerical simulations of dispersion of radionuclides in the atmosphere after an accidental release can provide with a reliable prediction of the path of the plume. In this study we present a short (one month) and a long (11 years) term statistical study for the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant to estimate the most probable dispersion directions and plume structures of radionuclides on local scale using a Gaussian dispersion model. We analyzed the differences in plume directions and structures in case of typical weather/circulation pattern and provided a statistical-climatological method for a “first-guess” approximation of the dispersion of toxic substances. The results and the described method can support and used by decision makers in such important cases like the Fukushima accident.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21856053
Title: 10. Chernobyl’s Radioactive Impact on Fauna.
Author: Yablokov, Alexey V.
Reference: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Nov2009, Vol. 1181 Issue 1, p255-280. 26p. 1
doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04833.x
Keywords: GENETIC disorders, ANIMAL species, ANIMALS — Abnormalities, ANIMAL migration, LIFE expectancy, ANIMALS — Mortality
Abstract: The radioactive shock when the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986 combined with chronic low-dose contamination has resulted in morphologic, physiologic, and genetic disorders in every animal species that has been studied—mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. These populations exhibit a wide variety of morphological deformities not found in other populations. Despite reports of a “healthy” environment in proximity to Chernobyl for rare species of birds and mammals, the presence of such wildlife is likely the result of immigration and not from locally sustained populations. Twenty-three years after the catastrophe levels of incorporated radionuclides remain dangerously high for mammals, birds, amphibians, and fish in some areas of Europe. Mutation rates in animal populations in contaminated territories are significantly higher and there is transgenerational genomic instability in animal populations, manifested in adverse cellular and systemic effects. Long-term observations of both wild and experimental animal populations in the heavily contaminated areas show significant increases in morbidity and mortality that bear a striking resemblance to changes in the health of humans—increased occurrence of tumor and immunodeficiencies, decreased life expectancy, early aging, changes in blood and the circulatory system, malformations, and other factors that compromise health.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20002052
Title: Radiocarbon of dissolved humic substances in river waters from the Chernobyl area
Author: Nagao, S.; Aramaki, T.; Fujitake, N.; Matsunaga, T.; Tkachenko, Y.
Reference: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research, Section B (Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms), Aug. 2004, vol.223-224, pp. 848-53
doi: 10.1016/j.nimb.2004.04.156
Keywords: Radiocarbon; Humic substances; River water; Chernobyl; Carbon isotopes; AMS
Abstract: Radiocarbon (14C) was used to study the origin and transport of aquatic humic substances in river waters at the Chernobyl area, which received a pulse input of 14C as a consequence of the nuclear accident. Water samples were collected in April 1999 from the Pripyat and Sakhan Rivers, which flow through the radioactive contaminated area (30 km exclusion zone). The Δ14C values of humic and fulvic acids ranged from −68‰ to +75‰ and were ∼400‰ lower than those of non-contaminated environments. The aquatic humic substances may be derived mainly from those of bog, peat, and podzolic soil with older 14C age, and thereby reflect a larger proportion of older groundwater humic substances. Contribution of 14C by the Chernobyl accident appears to be small because of the long residence time of organic carbon at the surface soil.
URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168583X04006810
