Development of a Novel Passive Monitoring Technique to Showcase the 3D Distribution of Tritiated Water (HTO) Vapor in Indoor Air of a Nuclear Facility.

Tritiated water (HTO), a ubiquitous byproduct of the nuclear industry, is a radioactive contaminant of major concern for environmental authorities. Although understanding spatiotemporal heterogeneity of airborne HTO vapor holds great importance for radiological safety as well as diagnosing a reactor's status, comprehensive HTO distribution dynamics inside nuclear facilities has not been studied routinely yet due to a lack of appropriate monitoring techniques. For current systems, it is difficult to simultaneously achieve high representativeness, sensitivity, and spatial resolution.

Disproportionately High Contributions of 60 Year Old Weapons-Cs Explain the Persistence of Radioactive Contamination in Bavarian Wild Boars.

Radionuclides released from nuclear accidents or explosions pose long-term threats to ecosystem health. A prominent example is wild boar contamination in central Europe, which is notorious for its persistently high Cs levels. However, without reliable source identification, the origin of this decades old problem has been uncertain.

Uptake of Radionuclides by Bryophytes in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.

The "Chernobyl nuclear disaster" released huge amounts of radionuclides, which are still detectable in plants and sediments today. Bryophytes (mosses) are primitive land plants lacking roots and protective cuticles and therefore readily accumulate multiple contaminants, including metals and radionuclides. This study quantifies Cs and Am in moss samples from the cooling pond of the power plant, the surrounding woodland and the city of Prypiat.

Development and calibration of a modifiable passive sampler for monitoring atmospheric tritiated water vapor in different environments.

Anthropogenic release of tritium from nuclear facilities is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades, which may cause radiation exposure to humans through the contamination of water and food chains. It is necessary and urgent to acquire detailed information about tritium in various environments for studying its behavior and assessing the potential radiation risk. In the atmosphere, although the passive sampling technique provides a low-cost and convenient way to characterize the dynamics of tritiated water vapor (HTO), a single, simple sampler configuration makes it difficult to collect sufficient and representative samples within the expected period from different environments.

What's better for our health? Conducting protective actions during a nuclear emergency or accepting a certain radiation dose?

The threat caused by ionising radiation has resulted in the establishment of strict radiation protection guidelines. This is especially true for severe nuclear power plant (NPP) accident scenarios, which may involve the release of significant amounts of ionising radiation. However, we believe that the fine balance between the benefit of a certain protective action (e.