Particle size distribution of radioactive aerosols after the Fukushima and the Chernobyl accidents

Following the Fukushima accident, a series of aerosol samples were taken between 24th March and 13th April 2011 by cascade impactors in the Czech Republic to obtain the size distribution of 131I, 134Cs, 137Cs, and 7Be aerosols. All distributions could be considered monomodal. The arithmetic means of the activity median aerodynamic diameters (AMADs) for artificial radionuclides and for 7Be were 0.43 and 0.41 μm with GDSs 3.6 and 3.0, respectively. The time course of the AMADs of 134Cs, 137Cs and 7Be in the sampled period showed a slight decrease at a significance level of 0.05, whereas the AMAD pertaining to 131I increased at a significance level of 0.1. Results obtained after the Fukushima accident were compared with results obtained after the Chernobyl accident. The radionuclides released during the Chernobyl accident for which we determined the AMAD fell into two categories: refractory radionuclides (140Ba, 140La 141Ce, 144Ce, 95Zr and 95Nb) and volatile radionuclides (134Cs, 137Cs, 103Ru, 106Ru, 131I, and 132Te). The AMAD of the refractory radionuclides was approximately 3 times higher than the AMAD of the volatile radionuclides; nevertheless, the size distributions for volatile radionuclides having a mean AMAD value of 0.51 μm were very close to the distributions after the Fukushima accident. -- Highlights: • AMADs after the Fukushima and Chernobyl accidents in the Czech Rep. were determined. • The mean value of AMADs of the monitored nuclides from the NPP Fukushima was 0.43 μm. • Nuclides from the NPP Chernobyl fell into two categories – refractory and volatile. • The mean value of AMADs of volatile nuclides from the NPP Chernobyl was 0.51 μm. • AMADs of volatile nucl. from the NPP Chernobyl were 3× smaller than of the refractory radionuclides