Radiation measurements and radioecological aspects of fallout from the Chernobyl reactor accident

Fallout from the Chernobyl reactor accident has been monitored for about one year in Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. Fifteen different short-lived, three relatively long-and one long-lived fission products were identified in air, precipitation, soil, grass and milk samples. The iodine-131 and cesium-137 concentrations in air reached 6.5 and 3 Bq m-3 respectively, on 6 May, 1986. The external exposure dose rate rose to five times the normal background level. It was estimated that the accumulated dose equivalent to the adult thyroid from inhaled iodine-131 averaged 96 μSν, while the body burden from inhaled radiocesium nuclides averaged 2 μSν, 1000 times lower than that corresponding to the estimated dose equivalent from ingestion of foodstuff, which averaged 2 mSν for the first year after the accident. (author)