Stoulos Stylianos, Besis Athanasios, Ioannidou Alexandra
Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Scholl of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Environmental Pollution Control Lab., Scholl of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
J Environ Radioact. 2020 Oct;222:106383. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2020.106383. Epub 2020 Aug 26.
The determination procedure of low Cs concentrations in air using γ-spectrometry is essential wherever the net counts are smaller than the background of the spectrum. Such measurements have performed in April 2020 during the Chernobyl wildfires period. A significant event recorded in Thessaloniki's atmosphere during April 12, 2020, with 25.7 ± 0.7 μBq m of Cs, was measured. Besides, a minor incident with a lower Cs concentration of 9.6 ± 0.8 μBq m has occurred on April 21, 2020. The above results resemble to a previous one noticed during winter 2013, when signals up to 12.1 ± 0.8 μBq m of Cs detected in the atmosphere, due to extensive use of Cs contaminated wood for residential heating. The results obtained demonstrate that no radiation hazard rose for the general public due to inhalation of the Cs in the air of Thessaloniki, Greece. Moreover, the residence time of the aerosol-bound Cs has estimated. The data presented are useful for basic simulation-inputs and comparison with global atmospheric models, which also discussed after comparison with the back trajectories predicted by the NOAA-HYSPLIT model.
