Abstract
Activity concentration data from ambient radioxenon measurements in ground level air, which were carried out in Europe in the framework of the International Noble Gas Experiment (INGE) in support of the development and build-up of a radioxenon monitoring network for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty verification regime are presented and discussed. Six measurement stations provided data from 5 years of measurements performed between 2003 and 2008: Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen, Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), Dubna (Russian Federation), Schauinsland Mountain (Germany), Bruyères-le-Châtel and Marseille (both France). The noble gas systems used within the INGE are designed to continuously measure low concentrations of the four radioxenon isotopes which are most relevant for detection of nuclear explosions: 131mXe, 133mXe, 133Xe and 135Xe with a time resolution less than or equal to 24 h and a minimum detectable concentration of 133Xe less than 1 mBq/m3. This European cluster of six stations is particularly interesting because it is highly influenced by a high density of nuclear power reactors and some radiopharmaceutical production facilities. The activity concentrations at the European INGE stations are studied to characterise the influence of civilian releases, to be able to distinguish them from possible nuclear explosions. It was found that the mean activity concentration of the most frequently detected isotope, 133Xe, was 5–20 mBq/m3 within Central Europe where most nuclear installations are situated (Bruyères-le-Châtel and Schauinsland), 1.4–2.4 mBq/m3 just outside that region (Stockholm, Dubna and Marseille) and 0.2 mBq/m3 in the remote polar station of Spitsbergen. No seasonal trends could be observed from the data. Two interesting events have been examined and their source regions have been identified using atmospheric backtracking methods that deploy Lagrangian particle dispersion modelling and inversion techniques. The results are consistent with known releases of a radiopharmaceutical facility.
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Notes
For a long time only Germany was known to have measured radioxenon from the Chernobyl accident. Recently, however, 133Xe concentrations around 1.5 Bq/m3 were reported from late April 1986 in Cherepovetz, Russia (Pakhomov and Dubasov, 2008).
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Acknowledgments
The presented data would not be available without the conscientiousness of the local station operators, the crew from CEA in Bruyères-le-Châtel, from KRI in Dubna, from SFI in Marseille, from the BfS on the Schauinsland Mountain, from SvalSat in Spitsbergen and from FOI and Gammadata in Stockholm. We are grateful to Dr. Kurt Ungar (Health Canada) for giving permission to use the data acquired by their equipment in Marseille. We would also like to thank all colleagues within the INGE collaboration for fruitful work and discussions. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Gerald Kirchner (BfS, Germany) for his critical review and valuable comments on the manuscript.
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Saey, P.R.J., Schlosser, C., Achim, P. et al. Environmental Radioxenon Levels in Europe: a Comprehensive Overview. Pure Appl. Geophys. 167, 499–515 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-009-0034-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-009-0034-z