Speaker
Description
There have been two nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation in Slovakia - Jaslovské Bohunice and Mochovce. Radiocarbon as one of the most important radionuclides for delivering of long-term radiation doses to the public has been regularly monitored in the NPP surrounding areas as well as in the city of Bratislava. In the vicinity of both NPPs atmospheric carbon dioxide has been sampled on a monthly basis and its radiocarbon activity has been measured by gas proportional counting. The atmospheric $^{14}CO_2$ data from these two sampling stations will be presented and compared with results from other sampling sites from both urban and rural parts of Slovakia.
Carbon dioxide is assimilated by plants during photosynthesis and therefore connects radiocarbon in the atmosphere with the surrounding biosphere. Therefore stinging nettle samples were taken from the sampling area for comparison with the atmospheric data. These biota samples provide information about $^{14}C$ activity accumulated during given plants’ growth. Annual tree rings have been used as an archive of past radiocarbon levels in the biosphere as well. Tree ring samples from the Jaslovské Bohunice area covering a period of 20 years, measured by accelerator mass spectrometry, were compared with atmospheric radiocarbon data collected at the Jaslovské Bohunice and Bratislava (background) stations.
