title: Soil contamination with 90Sr in the near zone of the Chernobyl accident.
abstract: Representative large-scale soil sampling on a regular grid of step width about 1 km was carried out for the first time in the near zone of the Chernobyl accident (radius 36 km). An integrated map of terrestrial 90Sr contamination density in the 30 km exclusion zone (scale 1:200,000) has been created from the analysed samples. Maps of the main agrochemical characteristics of the soils, which determine the fuel particle dissolution rates and the contamination of vegetation, were produced. The total contents of 90Sr on the ground surface of the 30 km zone in Ukraine (without the reactor site and the radioactive waste storages) was about 810 TBq (8.1 x 10(+14) Bq) in 1997, which corresponds to 0.4-0.5% of the Chernobyl reactor inventory at the time of the accident. This assessment is 3-4 times lower than previous estimates.
authors.affiliation: Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology (UIAR), Mashinostroiteley str. 7, 08162 Chabany, Kievo-Svjatoshinskiy distr. Kyiv, Ukraine. vak@inrad.kiev.ua
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Kashparov
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lundin
authors.forename: Y V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Khomutinin
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Kaminsky
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Levchuk
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Protsak
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kadygrib
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Zvarich
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Yoschenko
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tschiersch
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D009688:Nuclear Reactors; D010944:Plants / Q000737:chemistry; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000032:analysis*; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D013326:Strontium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D014455:Ukraine
chemical_list: D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D013326:Strontium Radioisotopes