Use of 129I and 137Cs in soils for the estimation of 131I deposition in Belarus as a result of the Chernobyl accident

Keywords: Chernobyl; ¹²⁹I; ¹³¹I; ¹³⁷Cs; Soils

Abstract: Using radioactivity measurements for ¹³¹I and ¹³⁷Cs and nuclear activation analysis (NAA) or accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for ¹²⁹I, ratios of ¹³¹I/¹³⁷Cs and ¹²⁹I/¹³⁷Cs have been determined in soils from Belarus. We find that the pre-Chernobyl ratio of ¹²⁹I/¹³⁷Cs in Belarus is significantly larger than expected from nuclear weapons fallout. For the Chernobyl accident, our results support the hypothesis that there was relatively little fractionation of iodine and caesium during migration and deposition of the radioactive cloud. For sites having ¹³⁷Cs >300 Bq/kg, ¹²⁹I can potentially give more reliable retroactive estimates of Chernobyl ¹³¹I deposition. However, our results suggest that ¹³⁷Cs can also give reasonably good (±50%) estimates for ¹³¹I in Belarus.

URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0265931X01000807

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