DETERMINATION OF SOIL CONTAMINATION BY THE CORAD SYSTEM IN COMPARISONWITH OTHER METHODS

Common methods for the determination of soil contamination are very se nsitive. The procedures are either very time-consuming or assume such large plane areas with low vegetation for their measurements that they are not applicable to a large complex terrain with heterogeneous area s. The Kurshatov Institute in Moscow has developed a new transportable spectrometric system called CORAD. This article introduces the system and gives a comparison between the CORAD system and the two other com monly used methods. Under special conditions the CORAD system is a val uable alternative method. Particularly in the case of a higher, some y ears old or heterogeneous contamination (i.e., urban areas or complex terrain) by primarily one radionuclide, the CORAD system gives results without knowledge of the distribution of radioactivity with the depth of soil.