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Iodine-129 measurements in soil samples from Dolon village near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site

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Dolon village, located about 60 km from the border of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, is known to be heavily contaminated by the first USSR atomic bomb test in August 1949. Soil samples around Dolon were taken in October 2005 in an attempt to evaluate internal thyroid dose arising from incorporation of radioiodine isotopes (mainly 131I). Iodine-129 in soil was measured by using the technique of accelerator mass spectrometry. The 129I/127I atom ratios measured were in the range from 3.3 × 10−9 to 3.3 × 10−7. These values were within the range of the current background level (∼10−9 to 10−7) in the environment, including contributions from the global fallout of atmospheric nuclear tests and local fallout of nuclear facilities. The 129I atom accumulated level in soil ranged from 1.28 × 1013 to 1.59 × 1014 atoms m−2, the average (8.0 × 1013) of which was higher than the background level of (2–5) × 1013. From the relationship between 129I and 137Cs (corrected for background and decay from 1949 to 2005) accumulated levels, the background level of 129I and the 129I/137Cs ratio around Dolon were estimated to be (6.4 ± 0.4) × 1013 atoms m−2 and 0.25 ± 0.16, respectively. This 129I/137Cs ratio is almost similar to the fission yield ratio for 239Pu fast fission (0.24).

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the staff of the Institute of Radiation Medicine and Ecology, Kazakhstan, for their assistance in the soil sampling and also thank Professor V. F. Stepanenko at Medical Radiological Research Center of RAMS, Russia for helpful discussion. Part of this study was supported by the Grant-In-Aid for Scientific Research No. 17406001 (Hoshi et al.) and No. 16404004 (Yamamoto et al.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima, 734-8553, Japan

    Satoru Endo, Kenichi Tanaka, Neil E. Whitehead, Sergey Shinkarev & Masaharu Hoshi

  2. Low Level Radioactivity Laboratory, K-INET, Kanazawa University, Wake, Nomi, Ishikawa, 923-1224, Japan

    Junpei Tomita, Masayoshi Yamamoto & Aya Sakaguchi

  3. Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Kumatori-cho, Osaka, 590-0494, Japan

    Satoshi Fukutani & Tetsuji Imanaka

  4. AMS Management Section, Mutsu Office, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 4-24, Minato-machi, Mutsu, Aomori, 035-0064, Japan

    Hikaru Amano

  5. Kyushu Environmental Evaluation Association, 1-10-1, Matsukadai, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 813-0004, Japan

    Hidehisa Kawamura

  6. Mutsu Institute for Oceanography, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 690, Kita-Sekine, Sekine, Mutsu, Aomori, 035-0022, Japan

    Hisao Kawamura

  7. Kazakhstan Science Research Institute for Radiation Medicine and Ecology, 258, Gagarina Str, P.B. 49, Semipalatinsk, 490026, Kazakhstan

    Kazbek N. Apsalikov & Boris I. Gusev

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  1. Satoru Endo
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  2. Junpei Tomita
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Correspondence to Satoru Endo.

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Endo, S., Tomita, J., Tanaka, K. et al. Iodine-129 measurements in soil samples from Dolon village near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Radiat Environ Biophys 47, 359–365 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-008-0162-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-008-0162-3

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