A revision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Report Series No. 472 (TRS 472) transfer parameter data for root uptake of radionuclides by crops in tropical environments was conducted under the IAEA Modelling and Data for Radiological Impact Assessments (MODARIA II) programme (2016–2019). Data on concentration ratios between plant and soil (CRplant-soil) were collated and summarised

In this study, three methods to measure activity concentrations of radionuclides through high resolution gamma spectrometry are developed, optimized, and tested on drinking water samples. Two pre-concentration methods (partial evaporation and ion-exchange resins) were optimized for accuracy, precision, detection limits, costs, preparation, and measurements times. A new sampling method for 222Rn was

A new empirical method for in situ determination of the inventory of 137Cs in soil (ACs, kBq m−2) at grasslands and forests using a field-portable NaI(Tl) scintillation spectrometer-dosimeter was developed. The method is based on evaluation of the ambient dose equivalent build-up factor. The practical implementation of the new method with the spectrometer-dosimeter does not require a priori knowledge

129I is one of the main radioisotopes of iodine derived from the nuclear fuel cycle that can be found sustainably in the environment due to its long half-life. In coastal marine environment, brown macroalgae, such laminariales (or kelps), are known to naturally feature highest rates of iodine accumulation, and to be an important source of biogenic volatile iodinated compounds released to the atmosphere

The water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forrsk.) is a common vegetable and a part of the staple diet in Vietnam. It has a well-known tendency for the high absorption of lead, including the radioactive isotope 210Pb. 210 Pb day to 210Po, which is one of the most toxic radioactive isotopes when ingested. Currently, there are few data available on the activity concentration or transfer parameters of water

The effective dose annual limit in European Union member states for doses above natural background is 1 mSv. This includes ingestion, inhalation and external dose to a member of public. For doses received due to ingestion of drinking water, parametric value for annual indicative dose is 0.10 mSv. As the name indicates, parametric value is not a limit value: when the parametric value is exceeded, a

The activity concentration of 137Cs and 40K and total K content in the sclerotia of the Chinese medicinal fungus Wolfiporia cocos collected mainly from Yunnan province of China during the period 2013–2015 were investigated. W. cocos in Yunnan is collected from the wild and is cultivated in field conditions and the wood substrate used is derived from the local pine (Pinus yunnanensis Franch.) logs from

The present study was conducted in mountain regions of Armenia with the aim to assess the activity concentrations of natural K-40 and artificial Cs-137 in soil and mosses and reveal the distribution similarities and differences. Most widespread moss species and surface soils were sampled concurrently from eight mountain ridges and massifs by different altitudinal belts. Statistical analysis revealed

The CALMET-RIMPUFF is composed of the California Meteorological Model and the Risø Mesoscale PUFF model, which provides refined atmospheric dispersion modeling for nuclear emergency response. Because the performance of an atmospheric dispersion model can be case-sensitive, a multi-scenario validation is important to understand a model's behavior and limits. In this study, a multi-scenario validation

Data, despite being crucial for internal dose assessment, is lacking on the transfer of artificial radionuclides from the environment to the food supply. Expanding the available information on these factors is important for the improvement of dose models for specific scenarios. This paper describes the results of a 70 day field experiment with broiler chickens on the dynamics of excretion of 137Cs

The new data on 239+240Pu, 238Pu, 241Pu, 241Am vertical distribution in the deep western Black Sea sediments was analyzed. The sediment dating, obtained by means of 238Pu/239+240Pu activity ratio vertical distribution, suggested the upper 3 cm layer of sediments to be formed during 27 years after the Chernobyl accident and the deeper layers to be formed earlier in pre-Chernobyl time (before 1986).

Transfer factors of radium 226(226Ra), lead 210(210Pb), polonium 210 (210Po), uranium 238 (238U) and thorium 234(234Th) from five different agricultural soils in Syria to coriander, parsley and mint were investigated in a pot culture experiment. Geometric means of transfer factors (TF)were226Ra (0.13),210Pb(0.03), 210Po (0.02) and 238U (1.76) were within worldwide values, while TF values for 234Th

A novel approach is proposed to detect underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) through the displacement of natural radon isotopes (222Rn and 220Rn). Following an explosion, it is hypothesized that the disturbance and pressurization of the sub-surface would facilitate the movement of radon from the depth of the UNE towards the surface resulting in increased soil gas activity. The resulting signal may

The Acacia auriculiformis is a tree common in tropical Asian countries, capable of growing in many different soil types, so it could be used for biomonitoring for high natural radionuclide areas in tropical and subtropical climates. The transfer factor (TF) of radionuclides from soil to A. auriculiformis in eight uranium and rare earth element (REE) mining areas of North Vietnam was investigated. The

In this study, a portable cascade impactor was developed to more efficiently determine the activity size distribution of attached radon and thoron progeny in a natural environment. The developed impactor consisted of four stages with a backup filter stage for collection of the aerosol samples. The aerosol cut points were set for 10, 2.5, 1, and 0.5 μm at a sampling rate of 4 L min−1. Five CR-39 chips

One possible method for removing radium from waters is to use zeolites. The research carried out and described in the article was aimed at examining a wide spectrum of zeolites: natural (clinoptilolite) and synthetic (NaP1, 13X, 3A, 5A), as some of them show the high efficiency of radium removal from all types of water, it means the drinking water and brines as well. Characteristic of zeolites, as

We evaluate the ability of the Canberra Alpha Beta Environmental Continuous Air Monitor (ECAM) to detect and quantify airborne radiological contamination. The ECAM essentially consists of a passively-implanted planar silicon (PIPS) detector near a particulate filter through which outside air is pulled. Three years’ worth of background measurements on three different systems were assessed and calibrated

A new method was developed to extract 129I from urine samples and measure it using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The samples were pre-treated in an autoclave with hydrogen peroxide and were then acidified with nitric acid, followed by the precipitation of iodine as silver iodide (AgI) for measurement by AMS. This new procedure is substantially faster than previous methods for the extraction

This study focuses on evaluating the transfer factor (Fv) of 137Cs and 90Sr from two basic soil types in the country, i.e. Aridisol and Inceptisol, to 18 common crops belong to six groups, i.e. cereals, leafy, non-leafy vegetables, tubers, leguminous fodder and leguminous vegetables. In addition, the variation of Fvs of 137Cs and 90Sr with crop components, growth stages of plants and the influence

Analysis of a twenty-year (1998–2018) data series on 7Be concentrations in weekly collected aerosol samples in northern Poland showed a clear pattern of seasonal changes in 7Be with a maximum in the summer period associated with the most intensive thermal convection and vertical mixing. Activity concentrations of 7Be ranged from 480 μBq m−3 to 9370 μBq m−3. A strong relationship has been shown between

In recent years, radium has attracted considerable attention primarily because of the rapid increase in unconventional (fracking) drilling technology in the United States and around the world. One of the major radionuclides of interest in unconventional drilling wastes is radium isotopes (224Ra, 226Ra, 228Ra). To access long-term risks associated with radium isotopes entering into the environment,

Understanding the movement of radionuclides (RNs) between different mineral hosts during processing of base metal ores is critical for accurate modelling of RN deportment and optimisation of processes designed to reduce or eliminate RNs. Here, we demonstrate that spatially resolving quantitative alpha particle autoradiography combined with backscatter electron imaging and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

While radioisotopes of noble gases are known to be indicators of underground nuclear explosions (UNE), McIntyre et al. (2017) was the first to report the presence of 39Ar in shallow soil gas in association with a decades old UNE. While this finding hinted at the potential application of 39Ar to be used as an indicator of a UNE, doing so would also require an understanding of the natural concentrations

Thoron (220Rn) exhalation from building materials has become increasingly recognized as a potential source for radiation exposure in dwellings. However, contrary to radon (222Rn), limited information on thoron exposure is available. As a result no harmonized test procedures for determining thoron exhalation from building materials are available at present. This study is a first interlaboratory comparison

Extensive research has been conducted investigating the effects of ionizing radiation on biological systems, including specific focus at low doses. However, at the surface of the planet, there is the ubiquitous presence of ionizing natural background radiation (NBR) from sources both terrestrial and cosmic. We are currently conducting radiobiological experiments examining the impacts of sub-NBR exposure

In a previous study in 2016, we presented how 129I in coral cores from the east (Baler) and west (Parola) sides of the Philippines recorded the impacts of human nuclear activities, including nuclear weapons testing, nuclear fuel reprocessing, and nuclear accidents. However, the 2016 Baler dataset only had a two-year time resolution and a crude age model based on growth band counting. Here we present

Inspired by microbial diagenesis and mounding, microbial mineralization technology has been widely used in the treatment of heavy metal and radionuclide contamination. S. pasteurii can decompose urea as a source of energy to produce CO32− in the microbial mineralization system. Therefore, strontium-contaminated radioactive wastewater can be effectively treated by combining CO32− with surrounding strontium

The problem of handling nuclear power plant irradiated structural materials holds one of the central places in the nuclear power industry. High toxic 10Be with a half-life of T1/2 = 1.6 × 106 years is discovered in NPP structural materials after reactor operating. 10Be decays through only electrons' emission. Pure beta emitters are extremely difficult to determine in irradiated structural materials

Dependence of indoor radon concentrations (IRCs) in the ground floors of 1200 buildings across Montenegro on 11 factors was analyzed. A group of 734 buildings, for which none of the analyzed factors was missing, was further analyzed using the logistic regression method, in order to develop a prediction model for IRC occurrence above the national reference level for new buildings (200 Bq/m3). Applying

The influence of different building types on the activity concentration of Radon indoor is studied through transport models in soil and building materials. The numerical solutions of the relevant transport equations are solved by the finite differences method (FDM) and used to evaluate the indoor Radon activity concentration. Several boundary conditions are introduced to simulate the Radon entry into

Radiation emergency medical (REM) staff respond to many types of disasters such as radiological and nuclear accidents as well as environmental radioactivity exposure. The objective of this study was to evaluate the risk perception of REM staff on radiation exposure in various situations and to analyze the factors that affect their risk perception. A questionnaire was given to 284 REM staff affiliated

This paper studies the uranium content and uranium isotopic disequilibria as a tool to identify hydrogeochemical processes from 52 groundwater samples in the province of Granada (Betic Cordillera, southeastern Spain). According to the geological complexity of the zone, three groups of samples have been considered. In Group 1 (thermal waters; longest residence time), the average uranium content was

This study was carried out in the forest area of the Gomel region of Belarus contaminated by 137Cs following the Chernobyl accident of 1986. The aim of the study was to explore the effects of different types of wildfires on the biological availability of radionuclides and the distribution of algal communities in fire-affected soils. Soil samples were collected in 2017 and 2018 from sites burnt by surface

The impact of foliar fertilization with zinc (ZnSO4) and manganese (MnSO4 on 137Cs uptake by spring wheat and potato was studied. The experiments were conducted during 3 years (2014–2016) in a137Cs-contaminated area, Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. The fertilization was carried out on podzolic loamy sand soil, poor in most of the microelements. Both crops were fertilized at four successive stages of growth

The Sidi Moussa lagoon, located in western coastal Morocco and ranked as a wetland of biological and ecological importance (Ramsar site), is contaminated due to its proximity to the industrial phosphate plants and other anthropogenic activities around it. This study was carried out to assess the current environmental state of the lagoon as well as historical inputs of pollutants over several decades

The 238Pu, 239+240Pu, 241Am, 242Cm, 243+244Cm and 90Sr concentrations in seafloor surface sediments collected at three sampling stations off the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) site during the period from 2012 to 2019 were determined to elucidate the impacts of the FDNPP accident onto their concentrations in coastal sediments and to discuss the sources of the measured radionuclides. The

The intention of the study was to establish the activity concentrations and the annual committed effective dose due to ingestion of medicinal plants and soils by pregnant women and their probable effects to infants. The samples of medicinal plants and soils were collected from Osukuru, Tororo District (Uganda). The naturally occurring radionuclides investigated were 226Ra, 232Th and 40K and their activity

Over 40 soil gas samples were collected both in post-industrial areas as well as in undisturbed areas in the region of Kvarntorp, Sweden. Radioxenon (133Xe) was detected in 15 samples and radioargon was detected in 7 from 10 samples analysed. The concentration of radioxenon and radioargon in soil gas ranged up to 109 mBq/m3 and 19 mBq/m3, respectively. During sample collection other soil gases such

This work provides a novel data set on accumulations of both anthropogenic (137Cs, 238Pu, 239+240Pu, 241Am) and natural (210Pb, 226Ra, 232Th) radionuclides and an element (K). Sampling of soils and lake sediments was accomplished in 1999 during Tundra Northwest (TNW-99) international expedition to a remote region of the Canadian Arctic. The sediment ages and sedimentation rates were determined. The

Atmospheric transport modeling has been used to interpret the unprecedented number of multi-isotope detections of radioxenons observed during the six months of the qualification process by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization of the new SPALAX-NG system (Système de Prélèvement Automatique en Ligne avec l’Analyse du Xénon - Nouvelle Génération). Highest 133Xe activity concentrations

In case of a nuclear accident, adequate protection of the public and the environment requires timely assessment of the short- and long-term radiological exposure. Measurements of the radiation dose and the radioactive contamination in the environment are essential for the optimization of radiation protection and the decision making process. In the early phase, however, such measurements are rarely

Safecast is a citizen science project, aimed to environmental monitoring. Its main activity is measuring ambient dose rate all over the world. The freely accessible data, currently (January 2020) more than 120 million observations, were used to calculate mean values of dose equivalent rate in various cities where sufficient data is available. The results mainly reflect dose rate from terrestrial radiation

To evaluate the distribution of radiocesium (137Cs) among crown positions in trees after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, we collected foliage and branch samples from different crown positions of four major tree species (Chamaecyparis obtusa, Cryptomeria japonica, Pinus densiflora, and Quercus serrata) from 2011 to 2019 in northeast Japan. We divided the samples into current-year

One of the major uncertainties in dispersion-based simulations at the local scale is the representation of terrain effects. The aim of the current study is to quantify this type of uncertainty for dose-rate predictions over a homogeneous forest cover. At the Belgian reactor BR1, situated in a forested environment, ambient gamma-dose-rate data from routine Ar-41 releases are available in the first 300 m

Short-lived radionuclides are measured in surface sediment to provide a geochronology for the past century. Age-depth models are produced from 210Pbex activity-derived sedimentation rates and corroborated by known events, such as 137Cs and 241Am activities that are result of fallout from nuclear weapon tests and the Chernobyl accident. Different methods of age depth modelling using such data require

In July 2015, the currently only active monitoring station for atmospheric 85Kr measurements in the southern hemisphere went operational at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Adelaide, Australia. Here, this new data is presented and combined with measurements from historic monitoring stations, to generate a85Kr input function for the southern hemisphere which

Radon, 222Rn, is the major contributor to natural radiation in human environment. The exposure of high radon is known as one of the causative factors of lung cancer. Though thoron, 220Rn, has been a matter of study in atmospheric science, but it was often neglected compared to radon. It was considered that the amount of thoron in the environment is less than that of radon. However, recent studies show