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14C Cycle in the Hot Zone Around Chernobyl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Nikolai N. Kovaliukh ,
Vadim V. Skripkin  and
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Nikolai N. Kovaliukh
Affiliation:
State Scientific Centre of Environmental Radiogeochemistry, Paladina 34, Kiev, 252680 Ukraine
Vadim V. Skripkin
Affiliation:
State Scientific Centre of Environmental Radiogeochemistry, Paladina 34, Kiev, 252680 Ukraine
Johannes Van Der Plicht
Affiliation:
Centre for Isotope Research, University Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen The Netherlands
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Abstract

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Radiocarbon from the Chernobyl accident was released mainly in two forms: fine dispersed reactor graphite, and carbon dioxide from burning graphite. The CO2 was partly assimilated by annual and perennial vegetation. Reactor graphite dispersed over a wide territory was taken up biochemically by micromicetes, transforming non-organic carbon of the reactor graphite into organic matter. Organic matter of micromicetes is the main nutrition product for soil organisms such as bacteria, worms, larvae of insects, small beetles, etc. The following relatively independent trophic chains are considered: 1. carbon dioxide → leaves, grass → insects; 2. graphite → micromicetes, protozoa, insects. The 14C content in beetles of different species sampled in the 30-km hot zone of the Chernobyl accident site in 1986–1988 agrees well with the contamination levels of insect habitats as well as with their biology.

Type
Part 1: Methods
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 1: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference 16-20,1997 Groningen , 1997 , pp. 391 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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