Chernobyl fallout size distribution in Urban areas

Deposition of contaminant aerosol on human skin

“…It was found that with respect to atmospheric transport and deposition, these aerosols can be divided into two groups: a volatile group, which includes 137 Cs, 134 Cs, 103 Ru, 131 I, 106 Ru, 132 Te and 99 Mo and a refractory group including 90 Sr, 89 Sr, 141 Ce, 144 Ce, 95 Zr, 140 Ba, 95 Nb, 240 La and 124 Sb. Measurements made in various European countries after the Chernobyl accident rather consistently showed that outside the immediate vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the AMAD (Activity Median Aerodynamic Diameter) of the volatile radioactive aerosols was of the order of 0.7 mm, whereas a higher AMAD value of the order of 5 mm was found for those belonging to the refractory group (Reineking et al, 1987;Tschiersch and Georgi, 1987;Rulik et al, 1989;Dorrian, 1997). The Chernobyl accident also led to high air concentrations of both iodine in aerosol form, elemental (or other inorganic) iodine and organic iodine (notably CH 3 I) (Roed, 1987).…”

“…The Chernobyl accident also led to high air concentrations of both iodine in aerosol form, elemental (or other inorganic) iodine and organic iodine (notably CH 3 I) (Roed, 1987). The AMAD of particulate iodine after the Chernobyl accident has been found to be similar to that of other volatile radionuclide aerosols (Tschiersch and Georgi, 1987).…”

Dry deposition of particulate Cs-134 to several leafy vegetable species and comparison to deposition of gaseous Radioiodine

“…For deposition of particles, a dependence on the particle size was found, with the minimum of deposition in the size range 0.1-1 µm particle diameter. This is as well the size range of an aged atmospheric aerosol and the observed Chernobyl aerosol at some distance from the source [3]. For leafy vegetables only few experimental data are available.…”

“…The activity median diameter of the radioactive aerosol was chosen to be close to the Chernobyl aerosol of about 0.8 µm [3]. Polystyrene-latex particles of 0.8 µm diameter were used as carrier aerosol.…”

Test of methods for retrospective activity size distribution determination from filter samples

“…gamma spectrometry). (Papastefanou, 2008;Tschiersch and Georgi, 1987;Winkler et al, 1998) Frequently, inertial classifiers as cascade impactors or cyclones are used for sampling if the complete particle spectrum from ultrafine to coarse particles is of interest. (Hidy, 1984;Anttila et al, 2005) The concentration of radionuclides in ambient air and at workplaces is generally low and makes necessary heavy pumps or long sampling times for sizeclassified sampling.…”