Radiocaesium behaviour in Mediterranean conditions

Map on predicted deposition of Cs-137 in Spanish soils from geostatistical analyses

“…Studies of activity of 137 Cs in soil have been made in the Iberian Peninsula but at small-scale (Baeza et al, 2001;Gascó et al, 2006;Llauradó et al, 1994;Navas et al, 2005Navas et al, , 2007Sanchez-Cabeza et al, 2007;Soto and Navas, 2008). Data do not cover the whole territory except in the Legarda work (Legarda et al, 2011).…”

Soil–fungi transfer coefficients: Importance of the location of mycelium in soil and of the differential availability of radionuclides in soil fractions

“…This is a useful method in the case of a recent deposition of 134,137 Cs that is significant relative to the level of 137 Cs already present in the soil, such as occurred in areas that were heavily contaminated by the Chernobyl NPP accident. In Spain, however, deposition from this accident was very small compared with global fallout (Llaurado´et al, 1994), so that one expects practically no 134 Cs to be found in Spanish soils. The third method is to estimate the fungal biomass by evaluating some organic compound present in the mycelium.…”

Modelling seasonal variations of natural radionuclides in agricultural soils

“…Soil properties in Calabria are intermediate between those of cold and subtropical climates (Llauradó et al, 1994). These characteristics produce an evident seasonality in radionuclides caused by the sharp contrasts in temperature and relative humidity (Baeza et al, 2001).…”