Chernobyl cesium

It has been suggested that cesium may be useflil in the fixation of radioactive waste in a cesium-based glass and in detoxification procedures for fugitive Cs emissions, such as at Chernobyl, Ukraine. 

The accident at the Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear reactor on April 26, 1986, contaminated much of the northern hemisphere, especially Europe, by releasing large amounts of radiocesium-137 and other radionuclides into the environment. In the immediate vicinity of Chernobyl at least 30 people died, more than 115,000 others were evacuated, and the consumption of locally produced milk and other foods was banned because of radiocontamination. The most sensitive local ecosystems were the soil fauna and pine forest communities. Elsewhere, fallout from Chernobyl measurably contaminated freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems, including flesh and milk of domestic livestock. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) calves in Norway showed an increasing frequency of chromosomal aberrations that seemed to correlate with cesium-137 tissue concentrations tissue concentrations, in turn, were related to cesium-137 in lichens, an efficient absorber of airborne particles containing radiocesium and the main food source of reindeer during winter. A pattern similar to that of reindeer was documented in moose (Alces) in Scandinavia. 

Aii, T., S. Kume, S. Takahashi, M. Kurihara, and T. Mitsuhashi, 1990. The effect of the radionuclides from Chernobyl on iodine-131 and cesium-137 contents in milk and pastures in south-western Japan. Japan. Soc. Zootech. Sci. 61 47-53. 

Battiston, G.A., S. Degetto, R. Gerbasi, G. Sbrignadello, R. Parigi-Bini, G. Xiccato, and M. Cinetto. 1991. Transfer of Chernobyl fallout radionuclides feed to growing rabbits cesium-137 balance. Sci. Total Environ. 105 1-12. 

Eikelmann, I.M.H., K. Bye, and H.D. Sletten. 1990. Seasonal variation of cesium 134 and cesium 137 in semidomestic reindeer in Norway after the Chernobyl accident. Rangifer, Spec. Iss. No. 3 35-38. 

Melin J. and Wallberg L. Distribution and retention of cesium in Swedish boreal forest ecosystems, in The Chernobyl fallout in Sweden, results from a research program on environmental radiology, ed. J. Moberg, Stockholm, Swedish Radiat. Protect. Inst., 1991, pp. 467-475. 

Shortly thereafter the same reporter published another page 1 article in the New York Times stating that more radioactive cesium was released from the Chernobyl accident than from all bomb tests combined. I sent him the detailed evidence that he was wrong by an order of magnitude and chided him for misinforming the public. His response was, I don t tell you how to do research, so you don t tell me how to do journalism. It is obviously a very important career advancement step for a freelancer to get a page 1 article in the New York Times. 

Il has been estimated that the most serious long-term threat to health and the environment as the result of the Chernobyl (former U.S.S.R) nuclear power plant disaster (1986) may come from radioactive cesium, which has a half-life of 33 years. Exposure to cesium-137 could increase the death rate from cancer in western Russia by a maximum oT 0.44b over the next 70 years. That would equate with almost 40.000 excess deaths. 

The radioactive isotope cesium-137 was produced in large amounts in fallout from the 1985 nuclear power-plant disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine. Write the symbol for this isotope in standard format. 

The increasing threat of international terrorism was one motivation for development of ISE for the determination of Cs+ in environmental samples [80]. In an event such as a Chernobyl-type disaster or the explosion of a dirty bomb , cesium is one of the most important reaction products and is expected to be the most significant threat to public health [81]. With a detection limit of 10 8M, the developed electrode is sensitive enough for this application and the successful detection of cesium activities in spiked water samples has been demonstrated (see Procedure 2 in CD accompanying this book). In addition, the electrode shows excellent selectivity to cesium in the presence of high levels of strontium, an important interferent originating from nuclear explosions. 

Table 2.2 summarises the results obtained for all of the water samples. A very good correspondence between spiked and experimentally obtained results was observed. A relative experimental error in most cases was <10% indicating the possibility of using these electrodes as an early warning system in the event of a large contamination of natural waters with cesium, such as in the event of a nuclear reactor accident, e.g., Chernobyl, or the detonation of a dirty bomb . 

The anthropogenic radionuclides of most concern are those produced as fission products from nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. The most devastating release from the latter source to date resulted from the April 26, 1986, explosion, partial meltdown of the reactor core, and breach of confinement structures by a power reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. This disaster released 5 x 107 Ci of radionuclides from the site, which contaminated large areas of Soviet Ukraine and Byelorussia, as well as areas of Scandinavia, Italy, France, Poland, Turkey, and Greece. Radioactive fission products that are the same or similar to elements involved in life processes can be particularly hazardous. One of these is radioactive iodine, which tends to accumulate in the thyroid gland, which may develop cancer or otherwise be damaged as a result. Radioactive cesium exists as the Cs+ ion and is similar to sodium and potassium in its physiological behavior. Radioactive strontium forms the Sr2+ ion and substitutes for Ca2+, especially in bone. 

Clinoptilolite amendments to soil have greatly reduced cesium uptake by plants (e.g. on Bikini AtoU) and clinoptilolite from the Belli Plest deposit in Bulgaria was dropped by air to help control the Chernobyl accident. Finally, both zeolite A and a chabazite played key roles in the Three Mile Island clean-up program, again to scavenge Cs radioisotopes. 

To evaluate the deposition routines a simulation of the Chernobyl accident was carried out and compared to measurements of total deposited Cesium 137 (Cs-137). The measurements were extracted from the Radioactivity Environmental Monitoring database at the Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy (http //rem.jrc.cec.eu.int/). The comparison date was chosen to be 1 May 1986 at 12 00 UTC, since at this time the greatest number of measurements was available. Statistical measures were calculated following the recommendations of the Atmospheric Transport Model Evaluation Study (ATMES) final report (Klug et al. 1992). 

During the 1986disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, cesium-137 escaped into the air. 

Shutov VN, Bruk GY, Balonov MI, et al. 1993. Cesium and strontium radionuclide migration in the agricultural ecosystem and estimation of internal doses to the population. In Merwin SE, Balonov MI, ed. The Chernobyl papers Doses to the Soviet population and early health effects studies. Richland, WA Research Enterprises, Inc, Vol. I, 167-219. 

The Chernobyl accident in Russia released radioactive iodine, cesium, strontium, and plutonium over major European countries. The disaster disrupted life in the Ukraine, Belorussia, and Russia, causing deaths, disease, environmental damage, lifestyle changes, and physical and psychiatric stress in hundreds of thousands of victims and rescuers (Darby and Reeves 1991 Torubarov 1991). More than 4 million people lived in the contaminated area 130,000 required immediate evacuation, and 1 million became involved in the cleanup. A 30-km forbidden area exists around the site, and 300,000 live in strict control zones that require constant monitoring (van den Bout et al. 1995). 

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