The monitoring of ambient air on radioactive contamination in Austria. New developments and quality assurance

Environmental monitoring of radioactive contaminations in Austria is based on the Austrian Radiation Protection Act (BGBl. No. 227/1969 i.d.g.F.) and is performed in responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. With the accession to EU, Austria - like each Member State - is obliged to the surveillance of radioactivity in air, water and soil, as well as to the reporting of the results of this surveillance. The Austrian monitoring network consists of the automated early warning network and the laboratory based network, which is operated by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety. This paper is focused on the surveillance of air, which is a primary transport pathway and therefore of special importance. Beside a short presentation of the network, extensions of sampling stations and technical as well as methodical innovations - e.g. the high volume sampler in Vienna - are detailed. Results of different sampling stations (esp. the high altitude sampling station at the Hoher Sonnblick 3106 m) and quality assurance measures concerning the introduction of new analytical methods, like radiochemical determination of radiostrontium and plutonium isotopes, as well as collaborations in international networks are presented. (orig.)