Measurement Limits to 134Cs Concentration in Soil

TL;DR

This study improves measurement techniques for detecting low levels of 134Cs in soil near nuclear facilities by using AMP precipitation to significantly lower the detection limits, enabling more sensitive environmental monitoring.

Contribution

It introduces an AMP precipitation method to reduce the MDA for 134Cs in soil, achieving tenfold lower detection limits compared to previous methods.

Findings

MDA for 134Cs ranged from 0.015 to 0.044 Bq/kg-dry

AMP precipitation reduces MDA activity by about ten times

Detection of 134Cs requires MDA levels in the mBq/kg-dry range

Abstract

We investigate the caesium concentrations in soils in mountain areas near Gori nuclear power plant in Korea, focusing on the measurement limits to the 134Cs. In order to lower the minimum detectable amount (MDA) of activity for the 134Cs, we have used the ammonium molybdophosphase (AMP) precipitation method to get rid of the 40K existing in natural radioactivity, which reduces the MDA activity about ten times smaller than those without the AMP precipitation method. The MDA results for the 134Cs were found to be in the range between 0.015 and 0.044 Bq/kg-dry weight. In order to diminish the background, we also have measured a part of the soil samples in Yangyang, a small town in the east coast of Korea. However, it turns out that in order to detect the 134Cs in the samples the MDA should be reduced to the level of mBq/kg-dry weight.