Isotopic Pu, U, and Np signatures in soils from Semipalatinsk-21, Kazakh Republic and the Southern Urals, Russia

Environmental radiation and radioactivity in the vicinity of the Semipalatinsk Test Site

“…This discrepancy is ascribed to different soil sampling techniques (YAMAMOTO et al 5 sampled to a depth of 2 to 3 mm or <1 mm, compared to our technique of sampling to a depth of 5 cm), and different sampling locations, given that "hot" particle distribution is inhomegeneous. 4 While the agreement among the methods we used was generally good, there were some exceptions. At locations 725.2, 725.3, and 725.6, the agreement between the estimated dose rates from soil sampling and field spectrometric methods was excellent (<10%), but decreased to 15 to 25% when PIC measurements were compared to HPGe results.…”

Artificial radionuclides in the atmosphere over Lithuania

“…The input of plutonium derived from Semipalatinsk-21 or Novaya Zemlya atmospheric weapon testing probably could be suspected (Beasley et al, 1998). However, contribution of the Chernobyl originated plutonium to the aerosol for the period of forest and peat bog fires was not found.…”

Radioisotope contaminations from releases of the Tomsk–Seversk nuclear facility (Siberia, Russia)

“…TomskeSeversk, Mayak, in Russia and Semipalatinsk, in Republic of Kazakhstan). Thus the release of radioactive contaminants in the rivers by nuclear facilities, the drainage of the heavily contaminated ground and underground as well as the drainage of global fallout account for the strong plutonium activity concentrations and the variability of plutonium ratios observed in sediments of the ObeIrtysh basin (Cochran et al, 2000;Kenna and Sayles, 2002;Beasley et al, 1998;Baskaran et al, 1996). Up to now, the influence of TomskeSeversk plutonium discharges was subject to speculation (Cochran et al, 2000;Kenna and Sayles, 2002).…”

“…7. Plutonium isotopic ratios of some samples from S and Rb profiles and other possible sources of plutonium including Chernobyl fallout (Ketterer et al, 2004), global fallout (Ketterer et al, 2004;Kelley et al, 1999), production and testing of weapons (in Mayak and Semipalatinsk, after Beasley et al, 1998), nuclear weapons (Thule and Palomares accidents, after Mitchell et al, 1997). Samples from Tomsk are away from the mixing line joining the global fallout and Chernobyl values.…”