title: Long-term assessment of contaminated articles from the Chernobyl reactor.
abstract: The Chernobyl accident caused a release of radioactive materials from the reactor into the environment. This event contaminated people, their surroundings and their personal property, especially in the zone around the reactor. Among the affected individuals were British students who were studying in Minsk and Kiev at the time of the Chernobyl accident. These students were exposed to external and internal radiation, and the individuals' articles of clothing were contaminated. The primary objective of this study was to analyze a sample of this contaminated clothing 20 years after the accident using three different detectors, namely, a BP4/4C scintillation detector, a Min-Con Geiger-Müller tube detector and a high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The clothing articles were initially assessed and found not to be significantly contaminated. However, there were several hot spots of contamination in various regions of the articles. The net count rates for these hot spots were in the range of 10.00 ± 3.16 c/s to 41.00 ± 6.40 c/s when the BP4/4C scintillation detector was used. The HPGe detector was used to identify the radionuclides present in the clothing, and the results indicated that the only active radionuclide was (137)Cs because of this isotope's long half-life.
authors: King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Saudi Arabia; Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK. Electronic address: khomashi@kacst.edu.sa.
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Alkhomashi
authors: RESTECH for Medical and Scientific Eqpt, Al-Khaleej Commercial Centre, Suites 140/141, P.O. BOX 484, Riyadh 11411, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: Monged79@gmail.com.
authors: M H E
authors: MH
authors: Monged
mesh_terms: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D047852:Chernobyl Nuclear Accident; D003020:Clothing; D004739:England; D006207:Half-Life; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000032:analysis*; D011874:Radiometry; D012588:Scintillation Counting; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D011847:Radioactive Fallout
keywords: Chernobyl; Contamination; Detector; Radionuclide