Spatial variability and Cesium-137 inventories in native forest

With the nuclear fission discovery and development of nuclear weapons in 1940s, artifi cial radioisotopes were introduced in the environment. This contamination is due to worldwide fallout by superfi cial nuclear tests realized from early 1950s to late 1970s by USA, former URSS, UK, France and China. One of theses radioisotopes that have been very studied is cesium-137. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30.2 years and its biological behavior is similar to the potassium. The behavior in soil matrix, depth distribution, spatial variability and inventories values of cesium-137 has been determinate fo...