Monitoring of tritium, 60Co and 137Cs in the vicinity of the warm water outlet of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, Hungary.
Danube water, sediment and various aquatic organisms (snail, mussel, predatory and omnivorous fish) were collected upstream (at a background site) and downstream of the outlet of the warm water channel of Paks Nuclear Power Plant. Gamma emitters, tissue free-water tritium (TFWT) and total organically-bound tritium (T-OBT) measurements were performed. A slight contribution of the power plant to the natural tritium background concentration was measured in water samples from the Danube section downstream of the warm water channel. Sediment samples also contained elevated tritium concentrations, along with a detectable amount of (60)Co. In the case of biota samples, TFWT exhibited only a very slight difference compared to the tritium concentration of the Danube water, however, the OBT was higher than the tritium concentration in the Danube, independent of the origin of the samples. The elevated OBT concentration in the mollusc samples downstream of the warm water channel may be attributed to the excess emission from the nuclear power plant. The whole data set obtained was used for dose rate calculations and will be contributed to the development of the ERICA database.
Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary. Electronic address: janovics@atomki.hu.
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Janovics
Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.
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Bihari
Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.
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Papp
Isotoptech Ltd., Debrecen, Hungary.
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Dezső
Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.
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Major
Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Biology and Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Cluj Napoca, Romania.
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Sárkány
Paks Nuclear Power Plant Co., Paks, Hungary.
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Bujtás
Isotoptech Ltd., Debrecen, Hungary.
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Veres
Hertelendi Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.
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Palcsu
D000818:Animals; D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis*; D006814:Hungary; D008974:Mollusca / Q000378:metabolism*; D055848:Nuclear Power Plants; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D013051:Spectrometry, Gamma; D014316:Tritium / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000378:metabolism*
D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes; D014875:Water Pollutants, Radioactive; D014316:Tritium
(60)Co; ERICA; NPP; Organically-bound tritium