Measurement of radiocesium in Irish peatland soils

E. McGee; H. Synnott; P. Colgan

doi:10.1007/bf02164259

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Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Volume/Issue:: Volume 165: Issue 2

Measurement of radiocesium in Irish peatland soils

Authors:

E. McGee

E. McGee Nuclear Energy Board, 3 Clonskeagh Square 14 Dublin Ireland

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H. Synnott

H. Synnott Nuclear Energy Board, 3 Clonskeagh Square 14 Dublin Ireland

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P. Colgan

P. Colgan Nuclear Energy Board, 3 Clonskeagh Square 14 Dublin Ireland

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Pages:: 79–93

Online Publication Date:: 27 Sep 2005

Publication Date:: 17 May 1992

Article Category:: Research Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02164259

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Abstract

Results are presented for soils taken from twelve peatland sites in Ireland. Two depth horizons, 0–5 and 5–15 cm, were sampled on each site and sampling was carried out in summer and autumn. Deposition of Chernobyl¹³⁷Cs varied between 0.4 and 4.6 kBq m^–2, which is at the lower end of values reported by other authors for Irish agricultural soils. The data showed that the relative percentages of activity and deposition remained internally consistent in each soil horizon for Chernobyl and weapons fallout sources on both sampling occasions: this provided evidence that sampling and analytical procedures were consistent. An apparent reversal in the relative importance of weapons fallout in soils was found when deposition data were compared to the same data presented in activity format, and this same reversal was found for both soil horizons. Different conclusions may erroneously be drawn from data depending on the parameter by which we make measurements. Presentation of results should be carefully considered and depends on the purpose for which a study is intended. A statistically significant change in bulk density of the deeper soil horizon was found between summer and autumn. Changes in bulk density important to bear in mind that in addition to analytical errors, sampling methods can only provide estimations which themselves have inherent sources of error.

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Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

Print ISSN:: 0236-5731

Online ISSN:: 1588-2780

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Journal of Radionalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Language	English
Size	A4
Year of Foundation	1968
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	12
Founder	Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245. CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	0236-5731 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2780 (Online)