GEOGRAPHICAL MAPPING AND ASSOCIATED FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF THE LONG-LIVED CHERNOBYL FALLOUT RADIONUCLIDES IN GREECE

Immediately after the Chernobyl accident, a soil-sampling programme was undertaken in order to detect and quantitatively analyse the long-lived radionuclides in the Chernobyl fallout. Soil samples (1242 in number) of 1 cm thick surface soil were collected in Greece, during the period from May-November 1986. The samples were counted and analysed using Ge detector set-ups. In an attempt to proceed to the mapping of the long-lived radionuclides detected, an in-house Unix-based Data Base/geographical information system (DBGIS) was developed. Prior to mapping multifractal analyses of the deposition pattern for each radionuclide detected were performed. In the present work an analysis of the results of the deposition of 137Cs, 134Cs, 144Ce, 141Ce, 125Sb, 110mAg, 106Ru, Ru, 95Zr and 54Mn are presented, together with relevant fractal analyses and the respective contour maps. The maximum detected values of the above mentioned radionuclides were 149±0.1, 76.1±0.1, 32.9±0.2, 46±2, 4.56±0.02, 7.98±0.02, 79.1±0.4, 337±2, 20.1±0.2 and 3.02±0.02 kBm-2, respectively. Furthermore, a statistical technique to compare contour maps was introduced and applied, to explain the differences, which appeared in the maps of the above-mentioned nuclides.