A study of the radiological baseline conditions around the planned Sinop (Turkey) nuclear power plant using the mapping method

• Published in: Environmental monitoring and assessment 2019-11, Vol.191 (11), p.660-14, Article 660
• Main Authors: Baltas, Hasan, Yesilkanat, Cafer Mert, Kiris, Erkan, Sirin, Murat
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Background Radiation; Caesium 137; Cesium 137; Cesium isotopes; Cesium radioisotopes; Cesium Radioisotopes - analysis; Distribution; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecotoxicology; Elements, Radioactive - analysis; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental monitoring; Environmental science; Evaluation; Geostatistics; Kriging interpolation; Mapping; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Nuclear energy; Nuclear power plants; Nuclear Power Plants - statistics & numerical data; Potassium Radioisotopes - analysis; Radiation; Radiation measurement; Radiation Monitoring - methods; Radioactivity; Radioisotopes; Radionuclide kinetics; Radium - analysis; Radium 226; Radium isotopes; Radium radioisotopes; Soil; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive - analysis; Spatial Analysis; Spatial discrimination; Spatial resolution; Spectrometry; Spectrometry, Gamma - methods; Statistical methods; Thorium - analysis; Turkey
• ISSN: 0167-6369; 1573-2959
• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7819-z

This study makes a first attempt at a detailed estimation of the background radioactivity level and its distribution at the Sinop nuclear power plant site. The activity concentration levels of 226 Ra, 232 Th, 40 K and 137 Cs radionuclides in soil samples collected from 88 locations around Sinop Province, Turkey, in November 2016, were measured using gamma spectrometry. The distributions of radionuclide levels obtained from the results were evaluated using a geostatistical method, and the estimated radiation levels were determined using the ordinary kriging (OK) method, which is the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) for unmeasured points. Estimates of distribution results were evaluated using cross-validation diagrams, and it was shown that the OK method could predict radiological distributions for appropriate criteria. Finally, using the kriging parameters, distributions of radiation levels for the entire work area were mapped at a spatial resolution of 100 × 100 m 2 . These maps show that the natural radionuclides ( 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K) are distributed at higher levels to the southeast of Sinop than in the other regions, and the activity of an artificial radionuclide ( 137 Cs) is high in the interior and northern sections.