Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:32:50.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

14C Cycle in the Hot Zone Around Chernobyl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Nikolai N. Kovaliukh ,
Vadim V. Skripkin  and
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Nikolai N. Kovaliukh
Affiliation:
State Scientific Centre of Environmental Radiogeochemistry, Paladina 34, Kiev, 252680 Ukraine
Vadim V. Skripkin
Affiliation:
State Scientific Centre of Environmental Radiogeochemistry, Paladina 34, Kiev, 252680 Ukraine
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Affiliation:
Centre for Isotope Research, University Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Radiocarbon from the Chernobyl accident was released mainly in two forms: fine dispersed reactor graphite, and carbon dioxide from burning graphite. The CO2 was partly assimilated by annual and perennial vegetation. Reactor graphite dispersed over a wide territory was taken up biochemically by micromicetes, transforming non-organic carbon of the reactor graphite into organic matter. Organic matter of micromicetes is the main nutrition product for soil organisms such as bacteria, worms, larvae of insects, small beetles, etc. The following relatively independent trophic chains are considered: 1. carbon dioxide → leaves, grass → insects; 2. graphite → micromicetes, protozoa, insects. The 14C content in beetles of different species sampled in the 30-km hot zone of the Chernobyl accident site in 1986–1988 agrees well with the contamination levels of insect habitats as well as with their biology.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 1: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference 16-20,1997 Groningen , 1997 , pp. 391 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

US Department of Energy (DOE) 1987 Health and Environmental Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Gofman, J. 1994 The Chernobyl Accident: Radiation Consequences for This and Future Generations. Minsk: 511–513.Google Scholar
Gottdang, A., Mous, D. J. W. and van der Plicht, J. 1995 The HVEE 14C system at Groningen. In Cook, G. T., Harkness, D. D., Miller, B. F. and Scott, E. M., eds., Proceedings of the 15th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 37(2): 649–656.Google Scholar
Kovalyukh, N., Skripkin, V., Pazdur, A. and Pazdur, M. 1995 Radiocarbon studies of environmental behavior of radioactive graphite from the Chernobyl outburst. Silesian Technical University, Institute of Physics, Annual Report: 35–37.Google Scholar
Kovalyukh, N., Skripkin, V. and Sobotovich, E. 1996 Peculiarities of carbon behaviour of reactor graphite from Chernobyl fallout. Symposium Program. Third International Symposium and Exhibition on Environmental Contamination in Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Poland: 104–105.Google Scholar
Kovalyukh, N., Skripkin, V., Sobotovich, E., Buzinny, M. G. and Sanin, E.V. 1994 Radiocarbon of accidental release of Chernobyl NPP in annual tree rings. Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Slaskiej 1229, Matematyka-Fizyka Z71. Geochronometria 10: 217–224.Google Scholar
Kovalyukh, N., Skripkin, V., Sobotovich, E. and Zhdanova, N. 1994 Biogeochemistry of carbon from the reactor graphite. International Isotope Society, University of Wroclaw. Isotope Workshop II. 25–27 May. Poland.Google Scholar
Salonen, L. 1987 Carbon-14 and tritium in air in Finland after the Chernobyl accident. Radiochimica Acta 41: 145–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skripkin, V. and Kovalyukh, N. 1994 A universal technology for oxidation of carbon-containing materials for radiocarbon dating. Conference of Geochronology and Dendrochronology of Ancient Towns and Radiocarbon Dating of Archeological Finds. Vilnius, Lithuania, October 31–November 4, 1994. Abstracts and Papers. Vilnius, Vilnius University Press: 37–42.Google Scholar
Skripkin, V. and Kovalyukh, N. 1998 Recent developments in the procedures used at the SSCER Laboratory for the routine preparation of lithium carbide. Radiocarbon, this issue.Google Scholar