Ecological Research of Radionuclides Circulation in The Environment

Period: 2003-2004Customer: Nuclear Safety Research Association (NSRA) of Japan.

Objective: determine radiation contamination level for soil, water bodies, ground water, and bottom sediments with 137Cs, 90Sr and S Pu isotopes; study waterways of Chornobyl radionuclides redistribution.

Within the framework of the project:

• The Dnipro River soil, groundwater samples were studied with the objective to determine radionuclides concentration.
• Migration of soil radioactive contamination via waterways from the Prypyat River flood basin within the Exclusion Zone to the Black Sea was studied.

The following data were obtained as a result of the activities:

• With regard to the content of water absolute contamination, the following order of radionuclides was obtained for the water bodies subjected to the research: 90Sr> 137Cs> Σ Pu.
• Concentration of radionuclides in groundwater samples of the Dnipro River does not exceed their concentration in surface.
• Maximum concentration of plutonium isotopes was established for the Prypyat River; concentration of 239,240Pu in other sampling points vary insignificantly.
• Content of plutonium isotopes in the Prypyat River is twice as high for pulp than for solution.
• Correlation of airborne and open form of radionulcides was 0.8 in the Kyiv storage pool and it greatly decreases with distance; this means that plutonium is effectively sorbed in pulps with further immobilization by way of deposition.

 

The obtained data allow supposing that some chemical forms of radionuclides are weakly sorbed by soil and that is why they are highly mobile; therewith migration of plutonium isotopes is more intensive than that of radiocesium.