Radiological environmental monitoring of groundwater around NPP: A proposal for its assessment.

Whether a nuclear installation has radiological impact and, in that case, its extension, are the questions behind any environmental analysis of the installation along its operational life. This analysis is based on the detailed establishment of the radiological background of the area. Accordingly, the dismantling and decommissioning process (D&D) of a nuclear power plant starts with a radiological monitoring plan, which includes the radiological characterization of the area and of its surroundings. At the completion of the D&D, unrestricted use for the site will be permitted strictly in accordance with results of the radiological survey within the limits established by the local authorities. Groundwater quality is typically included in any radiological analysis since, among other reasons, a significant part of it is highly likely to end up being extracted for domestic use and hence, human consumption. While there is no regulation containing maximum activity concentration or radionuclide guidance values for water that may be destined for uses other than public consumption, if groundwater is considered a "part" of the land, dose criteria for site release can be applied. Therefore, together with the guidance levels to be established for the different radionuclides expected in the groundwater, the detection limits to be employed when performing routine radio analytical characterization procedures in the laboratory should also be provided. In this paper, we first propose a relation of the potential radionuclides to be analyzed in groundwater, together with their detection limits to be achieved when the determinations are performed in a laboratory, and subsequently, we discuss the most suitable analytical methodologies and resources that would be necessary to undertake radiological characterization plans from a practical point of view.

Validating proposed migration equation and parameters' values as a tool to reproduce and predict 137Cs vertical migration activity in Spanish soils.

This paper shows the procedure performed to validate the migration equation and the migration parameters' values presented in a previous paper (Legarda et al., 2011) regarding the migration of 137Cs in Spanish mainland soils. In this paper, this model validation has been carried out checking experimentally obtained activity concentration values against those predicted by the model. This experimental data come from the measured vertical activity profiles of 8 new sampling points which are located in northern Spain. Before testing predicted values of the model, the uncertainty of those values has been assessed with the appropriate uncertainty analysis. Once establishing the uncertainty of the model, both activity concentration values, experimental versus model predicted ones, have been compared. Model validation has been performed analyzing its accuracy, studying it as a whole and also at different depth intervals. As a result, this model has been validated as a tool to predict 137Cs behaviour in a Mediterranean environment.

Map on predicted deposition of Cs-137 in Spanish soils from geostatistical analyses.

The knowledge of the distribution of (137)Cs deposition over Spanish mainland soils along with the geographical, physical and morphological terrain information enable us to know the (137)Cs background content in soil. This could be useful as a tool in a hypothetical situation of an accident involving a radioactive discharge or in soil erosion studies. A Geographic Information System (GIS) would allow the gathering of all the mentioned information. In this work, gamma measurements of (137)Cs on 34 Spanish mainland soils, rainfall data taken from 778 weather stations, soil types and geographical and physical terrain information were input into a GIS. Geostatistical techniques were applied to interpolate values of (137)Cs activity at unsampled places, obtaining prediction maps of (137)Cs deposition. Up to now, geostatistical methods have been used to model spatial continuity of data. Through semivariance and cross-covariance functions the spatial correlation of such data can be studied and described. Ordinary and simple kriging techniques were carried out to map spatial patterns of (137)Cs deposition, and ordinary and simple co-kriging were used to improve the prediction map obtained through a second related variable: namely the rainfall. To choose the best prediction map of (137)Cs deposition, the spatial dependence of the variable, the correlation coefficient and the prediction errors were evaluated using the different models previously mentioned. The best result for (137)Cs deposition map was obtained when applying the co-kriging techniques.

Inventory and vertical migration of 90Sr fallout and 137Cs/90Sr ratio in Spanish mainland soils.

In this paper the inventory of (90)Sr in 34 points distributed along the Spanish peninsular territory is presented. Obtained values range between 173 Bq/m(2) and 2047 Bq/m(2). From these data set and those (137)Cs data obtained in a previous work the (137)Cs/(90)Sr activity ratio has been established, laying this value between 0.9 and 3.6. Also the migration depth of both radionuclides has been analysed obtaining for (137)Cs an average value 57% lower than that obtained for (90)Sr. Additionally, this paper presents the results obtained in 11 sampling points in which the activity vertical profile has been measured. These profiles have been analysed to state the behaviour of strontium in soils and after, by using a convective-diffusive model, the parameters of the model which governs the vertical migration of (90)Sr in the soil, v (apparent convection velocity) and D (apparent diffusion coefficient) have been evaluated. Mean values obtained are 0.20 cm/year and 3.67 cm(2)/year, respectively.

Inventory and vertical migration of ¹³7Cs in Spanish mainland soils.

In this study the total activity of (137)Cs deposited per unit area over the Spanish peninsular territory was analysed using a 150 × 150 km(2) mesh grid, with samples taken from 29 points. The deposited activities ranged between 251 and 6074 Bq/m(2). A linear relationship was obtained between these values and the mean annual rainfall at each sampling point which allowed a map to be drawn, using GIS software, which shows the distribution of total deposited (137)Cs activity across the Spanish mainland. At twelve of these sampling points the vertical migration profile of (137)Cs was obtained. These profiles are separated into two groups with different behaviour, one of which includes clay and loam soils and the other containing sandy soils. For both groups of profiles the parameters of the convective-diffusive model, which describes the vertical migration of (137)Cs in the soil, v (apparent convection velocity) and D (apparent diffusion coefficient) were calculated.