C studies in the vicinity of the Czech NPPs

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry Vol. 292; no. 2; p. 689
• Main Authors: Svetlik, I, Fejgl, M, Turek, K, Michalek, V, Tomaskova, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 01.05.2012
• Subjects: Nuclear power plants; Nuclear radiation
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-011-1495-y

The Czech Republic has two nuclear power plants (NPPs) equipped with light water pressurized reactors (LWPR). Annual sampling of biota for [sup.14]C activity monitoring by Nuclear Physics Institute in cooperation with the National Institute of Radiation Protection started in 2002. We present the results of biota monitoring covering two sampling periods 2002-2005 and 2007-2008. The considerable problem in the case of biota sampling for monitoring purpose is given by a relatively short period of biota accumulation for prevailing types of biota samples (leaves of deciduous trees or agricultural plants), which usually lasts from several weeks to 2 months. The short period of sample accumulation can also be partly overlapped by a service period of reactor outage in a given NPP. On the base of our several years' experiences we have changed a type of the sampled material to reduce variations of observed activities and to precise reference levels in the exposed and reference sites. Keywords Radiocarbon in biota * Nuclear power plants * [sup.14]C monitoring * Sampling material selection