137Cs contamination in the Adamello glacier: Improving the analytical method

• Published in: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity
• Main Authors: Di Stefano, Elena, Clemenza, Massimiliano, Baccolo, Giovanni, Delmonte, Barbara, Maggi, Valter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: (137)C; Adamello glacier; Alpine ice core; γ-spectroscopy; ice core
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11590/468651; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2019.106039

An alpine ice core, extracted from the Adamello glacier (Central Italian Alps), was analyzed in its entire length through low background gamma-spectroscopy, for the detection of Cs-137. Our results show that in glacier ice Cs-137 is tightly bound to insoluble particulate matter inside the ice core, and it is therefore possible to restrict gamma-spectroscopy analysis to particulate matter only. We show how the sensibility of the detection limit can be improved by almost one order of magnitude by using a well-type detector instead of a coaxial one. Hypothesis on the dating of some radioactive layers are also hereby presented.