A search for DU traces in environment in Serbia and one site of Bosnia

Herzegovina (Han Pijesak) Z.S.Zunic1, O.Cuknic2 and J.W.Mietelski2

1- Institute of Nuclear Sciences „Vinča”, Mike Petrovića Alasa 12-14, P.O.B. 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia

2- The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish

Academy of Sciences 31-342 Kraków, Radzikowskiego 152, Poland

Paradigm of war

•  During the war it is good to destroy (= kill) the enemies as efficiently as possible.

•  This progress ended (?) in developing the A and H bombs – the total weapons which can destroy not only the enemies but whole men civilization and perhaps also whole biosphere.

The paradigm of war became questionable.

•  The mankind started to think about effects which appears after use of weapon - this seems to be a modern concept but...

•  process could be found much earlier (since mediveal times), for example, after World War I, when chemical weapon was used and since the risk of unplanned consequences of it became obvious this kind of weapon was banned.

DU at targeted places

•  The ammunition containing DU was widely used during first Gulf war, Balkan wars and in Iraq and Afghanistan, everywhere where A-10A airplane was used,

DU at targeted places

•  However this weapon is not the only source of DU during war (tank guns for instance)

•  the average number of DU rounds used in A10 attack on a single target was about 200 (DU in a single round is about 300 g): ~50 kg DU/target (~600 MBq U/target).

Reasons of environmental studies following the use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition

during the latest Balkan wars (1995-1999) •  the possibility of leaching DU from

penetrators buried in soil (increase of toxic effects and internal radiation dose to people from additional uranium content in ingested vegetation and drank water).

•  The question of scale of dispersion of uranium by air during attacks on hard targets, when penetrators heats-up while piercing armor finally rapidly dispersing into hot aerosol cloud.

Reasons of environmental studies following the use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition

during the latest Balkan wars (1995-1999) •  the possibility of leaching DU from

penetrators buried in soil (increase of toxic effects and internal radiation dose to people from additional uranium content in ingested vegetation and drank water).

•  The question of scale of dispersion of uranium by air during attacks on hard targets, when penetrators heats-up while piercing armor finally rapidly dispersing into hot aerosol cloud.

Biomonitors

Organisms which are recognized as accumulators of contaminants what makes them suitable for environmental studies of a contamination (in particular - radioactive contamination).

Lichens and mosses - the best known biomonitors.

•  Lichens are symbiotic organism of fungi and algae. The symbiotic relation is so tight that species names were given to lichens as they would be a separate organisms. Lichens took all the nutrients from the air and atmospheric precipitation and nothing is taken from the support

•  Mosses also cumulate contaminations from air and air precipitation .

•  The vascular (higher) plants takes the nutrients from the soil.

All those materials were subject of investigation for DU.

Scale of investigation: 1.  Žunič et al. (2001), Archive of Oncology, 9 (4), 283-294. 2.  Esposito et al. (2002), J. Environ. Rad., 61, 271-282. 3.  UNEP, Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment, Revised Edition: May 2003. 4.  Danesi et al. (2003), J. Environ. Rad., 64 , 121-131. 5.  Karangelos et al. (2004), J. Environ. Rad., 76 , 295-310 6.  Sahoo et al. (2004), Nucl. Technology & Rad. Prot. No 1/2004, 26-30. 7.  Žunič et al. (2005), International Congress Series 1276, 141-144. 8.  Di Lella et al. (2005), Sci. of Total Environ., 337, 109-118. 9.  Jia et al. (2006), Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 89, 172-187. 10.  Gaca, P. et. al. (2005) in: Radioactivity in the Environment, 7, Editor M.S. Baxter,

Elsevier, 1056-1063. 11.  Sahoo et al., (2007) Radiation Prot. Dosimetry 127, 407-410. 12.  Sansone et al. (2001) The Science of The Total Environment, 281, 23-35. 13.  Loppi et al., (2003) Environmental Pollution, 125, 277-280. 14.  Di Lella et al. (2003) Atmospheric Environment, 37, 5445-5449. 15.  Di Lella et al. (2004) Chemosphere, 56, 861-865. 16.  Jia et al. (2005) Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 63, 381-399. 17.   Žunič et al. (2008) Journal of Environ.l Rad., 99, 1324-1328.

Our last paper Traces of DU in samples of environmental bio-monitors (non-

flowering plants, fungi) and soil from target sites of the Western Balkan region

Zora S. Žunić1, Jerzy W. Mietelski2*, Sylwia Błażej2, Paweł Gaca2, Ewa Tomankiewicz2, Predrag Ujić1, Igor Čeliković1, Olivera Čuknić1, Miroslav Demajo1

1- Institute of Nuclear Sciences „Vinča”, Mike Petrovića Alasa 12-14, P.O.B. 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia 2- The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences 31-342 Kraków, Radzikowskiego 152, Poland

Techniques used

•  gamma spectrometry •  alpha spectrometry •  mass spectrometry

– TIMS –  ICP MS –  AMS

Our results (example, only Han Pijesac barracks)

Our conclusions •  The presence of DU was proved for five

environmental samples (moss, moss and lichen, soil) collected in the vicinity of the targeted area.

•  No clear traces of DU were observed for other samples originating from directly targeted area and no traces of DU were found for more remote sites.

•  The lack of traces of DU in lichen or moss samples from dwelling, suggest that the uranium aerosol, which was spread out during air strikes did not reach the studied villages.

Main findings (Lit.) (for moss, bark or lichens)

•  DU was found in the majority of papers •  Maximum DU activities reaches level of 0.5#

or 0.7* kBq/kg (only directly on targeted sites) # Zunic et al., 2008, * Jia et al., 2005, Sahoo et al. 2007 •  If U activity exceeds 15 Bq/kg it is due to DU,

most likely. •  Traces of U-326 (above GF) found for high

DU samples (Danesi et al., 2003; Jia et al., 2006)

Main findings (II)

Regarding long distance influence: •  DU not found in Greece, Bulgaria,

Serbia (Loppi et al. 2003)

•  DU found in low-level traces widely spread in Montenegro (Jia et al., 2005)

Conclusions

•  Inhalation of DU by general public seems to be not important (both toxic and radiation)

However: •  Recently DU found in two samples of

bread (Carvalho F. & Olivieira J. (2008). Proc. NRC7, 24-29 Aug. 2008, Budapest, paper 15 )