Survey monitoring of environmental radioactivity in Gwangju area

The objectives of this project are to detect radiation abnormalities in its early stage, to survey the regional environmental radiation/radioactivity levels and the variations of the levels, to prepare the capability of managing the radiological emergencies, and finally to extabish the protective and defence systems against the radiological hazards for the general publics. This report presents the levels of the external gamma dose rates, the gross β - activities in the natural samples, such as airborne dust, fallout, precipitation, and tap water, which were continuously monitored at the environmental research institute at CNU in 2000, and also the levels of the γ - activities in food samples and drinking water which were measured to collect the basic data of the regional environmental radioactivity levels around the Kwangju city and Chonnam province. The levels of the γ - and gross β - activities in the natural samples didn't any significant abnormality in 2000 and were similar to the results obtained in the past years. Also levels of the γ - activities of Cs-137 in those samples were below the MDA values. The γ - activities in almost all food samples, except for a few food samples, and drinking water samples were measured to be below the MDA values