0000000001098014
AUTHOR
C. Miró
Natural and artificial radioactivity levels in Livingston Island (Antarctic regions).
Radioactive contamination of the sea and land is due, on the one hand, to fallout from atmospheric atomic explosions since 1945, and, on the other, to emissions produced by nuclear and radioactive facilities. Given its geographic position far distant from the aforementioned main sources of radioactive contamination, Antarctica should have the lowest levels that can be measured on the Earth of artificial radionuclides in the various receptor media which are characteristic of the trophic chain. In the case of Antarctica, these are melt-water, sea-water, mosses, algae, and lichens. With the aim of contributing basic information on the radiation levels present in the Antarctic ecosystem, we hav…
Short and medium effects on the environment of Valencia, Spain, of the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident.
As a consequence of the 26 April 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a large amount of radioactivity was released into the atmosphere. The radioactive plume formed could be detected in practically the whole of the Northern Hemisphere a few days later. The zone most affected by the radioactive cloud over Spain was that of the Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands. In this paper, the authors examine the level of the radioactive contamination reached in various receptive media in Valencia, such as air, dry-fallout, water, soil, grass and milk samples collected in Valencia immediately after the accident. The activity levels are compared with those found during 1964 and 1965 due…
Recent evolution of the multi-isotopic radioactive content in ice of Livingston Island, Antarctica.
The temporal arrangement of the ice layers that are produced in ecosystems with perpetual snows form situations that greatly favour the study of the temporal evolution of the radioactive fallout that occurs in the said zones, whether this fallout is natural or artificial in origin. This allows one to investigate the causes of the fallout and the mechanisms transporting the radionuclides involved from their source point to the study zone, as well as their subsequent behaviour in that zone. There are special difficulties involved in this type of study in Antarctica. Some are of a general character deriving from the conditions of extreme climate and isolation which complicate the processes of …