Cs137 Italy

[cicastol]

Hi,
i've taken a soil sample in NW italian Alps at 1600Mt height , this place is known to be an hot spot for Cs137 Chernobyl NPP fallout , after only 1 minute the main photopeak is shown!
Soil dried and sieved, total weight472Gr in Marinelli with Lead shield.

Rough estimation of Cs137 activity is 2932+-586 Bq/kg , actually my detector efficiency at this energy is not calculated but derived, so error is quite large…
Count rate of the sample 57 CPS, background 13 CPS.

[Go-Figure]

Nice one Ciro!
Could you add the exact position from Google Maps. You know, in case I happen to be around one day.

Also, what detector did you use and how long the acquisition time was?

Massimo

[cicastol]

Hi Massimo,
pickup position : 45.747855, 8.042464 ,detector Luuk 3"x3", time 65ks, this long only to smoothen out NORM peaks, Cs137 will rise almost immediately!
My goal is to use this soil to make exact efficiency calibration standard after a pro lab quantitative analysis, sadly in Italy is too much expensive to make an HpGe lab analysis ,in future i will take several kg of this soil ,i will send a sample to everyone asking for , hoping for someone could take it to a lab for analysis and finally use this soil for Cs137 efficiency calibration .

[Milos]

Hi Ciro,
It is really high signal from the sample. If I compare it with every soil sample I've measured so far, I've never had such an intense signal (if compared to K-40). It is huge!

[luuk]

Hi Ciro,
Nice spectra still heavenly polluted by Chernobyl.
I still have a sample from north Italy with dried mushrooms, got it from a friend but up till now I never checked it, but seeing your results I must do a test with it for sure!
Luuk

[cicastol]

I've made a second bush airplane trip to collect soil on the Alps, the first sample was taken on a small flat,probably this accumulated and concentrated the rainfall during the Chernobyl fallout , causing an hot spot for 137Cs.
The second sample wa staken 30meters away from the first place but on the mountain slope , this sample has 1/3 the 137Cs activity of the first one, 1130+-225 Bq/Kg (deduced)

[cicastol]

photos of the trip