Dynamics of radionuclides in forest environments

In the CIS countries, during the Chernobyl accident, more than 30000 km2 of forested areas received a 137Cs deposition higher than 37 kBq m-2 and about 1000 km2 a deposition of radiocesium higher than 1.5 MBq m-2. Before the accident only few data were available on the behaviour of radionuclides in forests and during last eight years, the understanding of the fate of radionuclides in these ecosystems has been improved significantly. This paper reports the results achieved in the frame of 1991-1996 EU/CIS collaborative project on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The ECP-5 project deals with the impact of radioactive contamination on natural and semi-natural environment. The investigations were carried out in different forest ecosystems, located in the near field (within the 30-km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant) as well as in the far field in the CIS and in the western Europe countries. The results achieved have been used to develop a simplified model representation of the behaviour of radiocesium within forest ecosystems