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Determination of selected actinides (U, Pu and Am) in Belarus soils using high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass and gamma spectrometry

¹ Division of Geography, Northumbria University, Lipman Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 8ST, UK (jane.entwistle@unn.ac.uk)
² School of Life Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 2EE, UK (a.flowers@kingston.ac.uk)
³ NERC ICP Facility, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK

Depth distributions are presented for actinides and ¹³⁷Cs in soils in agricultural areas of SE Belarus, where Chernobyl fallout levels of ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs in the soil have led to the land being taken out of habitation and agricultural use. Both gamma spectroscopy and high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) are used to provide absolute values of soil activity concentrations of U, Pu and Am isotopes, and also to provide isotope ratios.

At our selected far-field locations (over 150 km from Chernobyl) the Chernobyl ¹³⁷Cs fission product contamination levels are comparable (at c. 10⁵ Bq kg^–1) to those at our exclusion zone sampling site at 15 km from Chernobyl. The levels of transuranium isotopes at the far-field locations are, however, significantly lower, at below 2% of those observed in the exclusion zone site, whilst the levels of anthropogenic ²³⁵U are less than 10% of those naturally present.

Our exclusion zone site, in October 2001, had a residual total surface deposition level of ^239+240Pu of 23,780 Bq m^–2, whilst the two far-field sites had ^239+240Pu at levels of 190 Bq m^–2 and 41 Bq m^–2. The inhomogeneity of the transuranic isotope concentrations in these areas, and the decay of ²⁴¹Pu to ²⁴¹Am, may result in certain far-field locations with a long-term significant radiological hazard.

KEYWORDS: Chernobyl, Belarus, actinides, HR-ICP-MS, soil