Long-term survey of Caesium-137 in soil and grass

Competence Centre for Radioecology and Radon (CC-RARA), Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Wieningerstrasse 8, 4020 Linz, Austria

Abstract

The construction and start-up of the Czech nuclear power plant in Temelin led to a substantial uncertainty and opposition among the Austrian population. For this reason a specific monitoring programme was started in the federal state of Upper Austria in 1992. Within this programme regularly soil, grass, precipitation, cereals, and raw milk from different locations are sampled and measured. Furthermore, in-situ gamma spectrometric measurements of grassland are conducted yearly. This poster presents some of the results from the monitoring of soil and grass. Soil and grass samples are collected from seven sites on a yearly basis. Samples from six layers (0–5 cm, 5–10 cm, …) are taken to investigate the change of the vertical profile of the Cs-137 concentration over time. Measurements were done by high-resolution gamma spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting (Sr-90).