Background: A field study on the transfer of primordial radionuclides 238U, 232Th, 40K and fallout radionuclides 210Po in different plant species in tropical forest of western Ghats environment is presented. Material and Methods: The Top storey, Second storey, Shrubs and epiphytic plant species were chosen and concentration of these radionuclides in plant and soil were measured by employing gam...

BACKGROUND Polonium-210 (²¹⁰Po) concentrations that exceed 1 Bq/L in drinking-water supplies have been reported from four widely separated U.S. states where exposure to it went unnoticed for decades. The radionuclide grandparents of ²¹⁰Po are common in sediments, and segments of the public may be chronically exposed to low levels of ²¹⁰Po in drinking water or in food products from animals raise...

Deposition of 226Ra from water on nylon was investigated. Measurements performed for different pH and different radium concentrations in the water gave similar absolute activities deposited on the foil surface. Obtained results were used to estimate the amount of 226Ra plated-out on the nylon scintillator vessel in the solar neutrino experiment BOREXINO during filling of the detector. Another p...

The death in London of the former secret service agent Alexander Livtinenko on 23 November 2006 generally attracted the attention of the public to the rather unknown radionuclide (210)Po. This paper presents the results of a monitoring programme of (210)Po background levels in the urines of noncontaminated people living in Central Italy (near the Republic of S. Marino). The relationship between...

The mysterious death of Mr. Alexander Litvinenko who was most possibly poisoned by Polonium-210 ((210)Po) in November 2006 in London attracted the attention of the public to the kinetics, dosimetry and the risk of this high radiotoxic isotope in the human body. In the present paper, the urinary excretion of seven persons who were possibly exposed to traces of (210)Po was monitored. The values m...

The Sudety Mts. form a chain of mountains in the South of Poland and during the last 200 years were subjected to strong industrial and agricultural pressure. The records of these human-induced changes are stored in natural archives like lake sediments. For the comprehensive study, three sediment cores taken from Mały Staw Lake (Sudety Mts.) were analyzed for the concentration of K, Na, Mn, Fe, ...

Ob das auffallende Maximum der RBW des LETBereiches um 1360 MeV cm2 g~1 allein von der Ionisierungsdichte abhängt, bleibt noch zu überprüfen. In bisher veröffentlichten Versuchen13'32 sowie in den hier geschilderten, wurden LET-Werte etwa dieser Größe durch Po-a-Strahlen erzeugt. Die übrigen LET-Werte > 100 MeV cm2 g _ 1 wurden dagegen meist, wie in den hier beschriebenen Experimenten, durch Be...

In Egypt, nineteen water springs with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees C, which can be considered thermal waters, were reported. The radiological aspects of thermal water in three northern regions of Egypt (Gulf of Suez, Cairo, and Bahariya Oasis) were investigated. The activity concentrations of natural radionuclides of 226Ra, 40K, total uranium and 210Pb (210Po) in water samples were determi...