Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment

In April and August 2015, two major fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) caused concerns about the secondary radioactive contamination that might have spread over Europe. The present paper assessed, for the first time, the impact of these fires over Europe. About 10.9 TBq of (137)Cs, 1.5 TBq...

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Autores principales: Evangeliou, N., Zibtsev, S., Myroniuk, V., Zhurba, M., Hamburger, T., Stohl, A., Balkanski, Y., Paugam, R., Mousseau, T. A., Møller, A. P., Kireev, S. I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27184191
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26062
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author Evangeliou, N.
Zibtsev, S.
Myroniuk, V.
Zhurba, M.
Hamburger, T.
Stohl, A.
Balkanski, Y.
Paugam, R.
Mousseau, T. A.
Møller, A. P.
Kireev, S. I.
author_facet Evangeliou, N.
Zibtsev, S.
Myroniuk, V.
Zhurba, M.
Hamburger, T.
Stohl, A.
Balkanski, Y.
Paugam, R.
Mousseau, T. A.
Møller, A. P.
Kireev, S. I.
author_sort Evangeliou, N.
collection PubMed
description In April and August 2015, two major fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) caused concerns about the secondary radioactive contamination that might have spread over Europe. The present paper assessed, for the first time, the impact of these fires over Europe. About 10.9 TBq of (137)Cs, 1.5 TBq of (90)Sr, 7.8 GBq of (238)Pu, 6.3 GBq of (239)Pu, 9.4 GBq of (240)Pu and 29.7 GBq of (241)Am were released from both fire events corresponding to a serious event. The more labile elements escaped easier from the CEZ, whereas the larger refractory particles were removed more efficiently from the atmosphere mainly affecting the CEZ and its vicinity. During the spring 2015 fires, about 93% of the labile and 97% of the refractory particles ended in Eastern European countries. Similarly, during the summer 2015 fires, about 75% of the labile and 59% of the refractory radionuclides were exported from the CEZ with the majority depositing in Belarus and Russia. Effective doses were above 1 mSv y(−1) in the CEZ, but much lower in the rest of Europe contributing an additional dose to the Eastern European population, which is far below a dose from a medical X-ray.
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spelling pubmed-48690322016-06-01 Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment Evangeliou, N. Zibtsev, S. Myroniuk, V. Zhurba, M. Hamburger, T. Stohl, A. Balkanski, Y. Paugam, R. Mousseau, T. A. Møller, A. P. Kireev, S. I. Sci Rep Article In April and August 2015, two major fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) caused concerns about the secondary radioactive contamination that might have spread over Europe. The present paper assessed, for the first time, the impact of these fires over Europe. About 10.9 TBq of (137)Cs, 1.5 TBq of (90)Sr, 7.8 GBq of (238)Pu, 6.3 GBq of (239)Pu, 9.4 GBq of (240)Pu and 29.7 GBq of (241)Am were released from both fire events corresponding to a serious event. The more labile elements escaped easier from the CEZ, whereas the larger refractory particles were removed more efficiently from the atmosphere mainly affecting the CEZ and its vicinity. During the spring 2015 fires, about 93% of the labile and 97% of the refractory particles ended in Eastern European countries. Similarly, during the summer 2015 fires, about 75% of the labile and 59% of the refractory radionuclides were exported from the CEZ with the majority depositing in Belarus and Russia. Effective doses were above 1 mSv y(−1) in the CEZ, but much lower in the rest of Europe contributing an additional dose to the Eastern European population, which is far below a dose from a medical X-ray. Nature Publishing Group 2016-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4869032/ /pubmed/27184191 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26062 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Evangeliou, N.
Zibtsev, S.
Myroniuk, V.
Zhurba, M.
Hamburger, T.
Stohl, A.
Balkanski, Y.
Paugam, R.
Mousseau, T. A.
Møller, A. P.
Kireev, S. I.
Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title_full Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title_fullStr Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title_full_unstemmed Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title_short Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment
title_sort resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2015: an impact assessment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27184191
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep26062
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