Current assessment of integrated content of long-lived radionuclides in soils of the head part of the East Ural Radioactive Trace

J Environ Radioact. 2014 Dec:138:238-48. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2014.09.004. Epub 2014 Sep 28.

Abstract

Based on the datasets obtained during investigations from 2003 to 2012, the spatial distributions of (90)Sr, (137)Cs, and (239,240)Pu content in the soils of the head part of the East Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT) were mapped using the geographic information system ArcGIS. Taking into account the presence of spatial autocorrelation and anisotropy in the source data, an ordinary kriging method was applied to interpolate values of radionuclide contamination density at unsampled places. Further geostatistical data analysis was performed to determine the basic parameters of spatial dependencies and to integrally assess the contamination by long-lived radionuclides in soils of the central, east peripheral, and west peripheral parts of the trace. This analysis was based on simplified geometric models (sector- and rectangle-shaped areas). The Monte Carlo method was used to quantitatively assess the uncertainty of the values for the integrated quantities resulting from the statistical errors of the source data approximation.

Keywords: Artificial radionuclides; East Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT); Integrated content; Kyshtym accident; Monte Carlo methods; Ordinary kriging.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cesium / analysis*
  • Cesium Radioisotopes / analysis
  • Data Collection
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Models, Statistical
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Plutonium / analysis*
  • Siberia
  • Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / analysis*
  • Spatial Analysis
  • Strontium / analysis*
  • Strontium Radioisotopes / analysis

Substances

  • Cesium Radioisotopes
  • Soil Pollutants, Radioactive
  • Strontium Radioisotopes
  • Cesium
  • Plutonium
  • Strontium