Measurement of 129I concentrations in the environment after the Chernobyl reactor accident

M. Paul*, D. Fink), G. Hollos, A. Kaufman, W. Kutschera, M. Magaritz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident which occurred on April 26, 1986 is known to have injected into the atmosphere a pulse of a large number of radionuclides. The activities of several radionuclides present in the subsequent fallout have been measured in different locations throughout Europe by gamma-ray and beta counting. We present here measurements of concentrations of the long-lived radionuclide 129I (T 1 2 = 1.6 × 107 yr) in environmental samples collected in Israel and Europe following the nuclear reactor accident. The measurements were performed by accelerator mass spectrometry, using the 14UD Rehovot Pelletron Accelerator. Concentrations of 129I in rainwater samples collected in the Munich (West-Germany) area and in Israel during the fallout period were measured to be 2.6 × 1010 and 1.2 × 109 atoms I respectively, while a 1982 rainwater sample from Israel shows a 129I concentration of 8.2 × 107 atoms I. Three measurements of the ratio 129I/131I gave a mean value of 21, from which an effective operating time of the reactor of 1.5 to 2 yr prior to the accident can be estimated. The possible use of anthropogenic 129I as a tracing tool for global environmental processes is discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)341-345
Number of pages5
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Volume29
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Nov 1987

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