Radioactive pollution of Turkish biotas one year after the Chernobyl accident

Long-lived fission radionuclides spread out after the Chernobyl accident have been measured in samples collected from the Black Sea and at the Aegean coasts of Turkey between June 15 and September 15, 1987. Nondestructive analysis was performed using high resolution -spectroscopy. The activity remaining 16 months after the event was found to be enhanced in coniferous needles as well as in lichens, while foodstuff did not show any appreciable contamination. The relatively high¹⁰⁶Ru/¹³⁴Cs and¹⁴⁴Ce/¹³⁴Cs ratios compared to those found in analogous samples from Southern Europe, might result from a fractionation between refractory and volatile elements.