Identification

Title

A 'Reference Site' in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: radionuclide and stable element data, and estimated dose rates

Abstract

Data comprise radionuclide activity concentrations, stable element concentrations and both radionuclide and stable element concentration ratios for vegetation and wildlife samples collected in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) in 2014. Estimated absorbed dose rates for wildlife in the CEZ are also presented. Samples of soil, wild grass, earthworms, bees and other insects, small mammals, pine trees and frogs were collected in May and June 2014; frogspawn was collected in April 2015. Data were used to assess the uptake of radionuclides by wildlife living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) and also absorbed dose rates. The isotopes measured were: Americium-241, Caesium-137, Plutonium-238, -239 and -240, Strontium-90 (K-40 and U-238 activity concentrations were estimated from stable element data). Funding for this work was via the TREE project funded by the NERC, Environment Agency and Radioactive Waste Management Ltd. under the RATE programme. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/ae02f4e8-9486-4b47-93ef-e49dd9ddecd4

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/ae02f4e8-9486-4b47-93ef-e49dd9ddecd4

description: Download a copy of this data

function: download

https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/ae02f4e8-9486-4b47-93ef-e49dd9ddecd4.zip

description: Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/ae02f4e8-9486-4b47-93ef-e49dd9ddecd4

codeSpace

doi:

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Environmental Monitoring Facilities

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

22.129

East bounding longitude

40.218

North bounding latitude

52.376

South bounding latitude

44.39

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2005-07-01

End position

2015-06-30

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-02-20

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

The sampling site (0.4 km2) was located towards the western edge of the Red Forest, approximately 5 km west-southwest of the Chernobyl Unit Number 4). The site was not within the area where pine trees were killed by high exposure levels in 1986. Most of the site was formerly used as kitchen gardens ('dacha') by the residents of Pripyat. With the exception of Pinus sylvestris, all samples were collected from an area of the former kitchen gardens with a number of fruit trees which was about 0.06 km2 in area; this is subsequently referred to as the 'inner sampling area'. The predominant soil type of the sampling site was soddy-podzolic sandy loam and the surrounding habitats were largely deciduous woodland (some of which was previously agricultural land) and marsh. All samples were collected over a period of about 1 month in May/June 2014. Although sampling was focussed on species falling into the ICRP RAP definitions (after Barnett et al. 2014), additional species caught were analysed for 90Sr and 137Cs activity concentrations. Sample types include wild grass, pine tree, earthworm, bee and other insects, small mammals (mice, vole, doormouse, shrew), amphibians and soil.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

explanation

Data format

name of format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

If you reuse this data, you should cite: Beresford, N.A., Gaschak, S., Barnett, C.L., Maksimenko, A., Guliaichenko, E., Wells, C., Chaplow, J.S. (2018). A 'Reference Site' in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: radionuclide and stable element data, and estimated dose rates. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/ae02f4e8-9486-4b47-93ef-e49dd9ddecd4

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

enquiries@ceh.ac.uk

web address

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8722-0238

description: ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers.

function: information