The β radioactivity of snow-pit samples collected in the spring of 2011 on four Tibetan Plateau glaciers demonstrate a remarkable peak in each snow pit profile, with peaks about ten to tens of times higher than background levels. The timing of these peaks suggests that the high radioactivity resulted from the Fukushima nuclear accident that occurred on March 11, 2011 in eastern Japan. Fallout m...

This paper describes a measuring procedure for the determination of shielding factors for vehicles passing through areas that have been contaminated by activity released to the atmosphere from a reactor accident. In open areas the radiation field arises from an infinite plane source. In urban areas the radiation field consists of the contribution from fallout deposited on a road and on the buil...

This paper addresses the noticeable increase of 137Cs activity concentrations in soil and fallout in the area surrounding Zagreb (Croatia) that occurred at the time of the 2011 Fukushima accident. This topic is important for public health as 137Cs is highly toxic due to its long half-life of radioactive decay and chemical similarity to potassium. 137Cs concentrations in fallout were much greate...

In a recent report (1), List, Telegadas, and Ferber take issue with my earlier conclusion (2) that vented underground tests in Nevada were the probable sources for the repeated occurrences of iodine-131 fallout in midwestern United States during May 1962. In doing so they provide no evidence to establish that the underground shots in question were contained, but they suggest that precipitation ...

In the mid-1950s, concern was increasing about the possible effects from the radioactive fallout resulting from nuclear weapon testing. Various scientists from non-nuclear countries such as Sweden and Canada made their politicians aware of the potential hazards of fallout. This concern went up to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which took the unique step of appointing a scientific c...

In previous research we concluded that a personality profile, based on the Five Factor Model, can be constructed from observations of a player’s behavior in a module that we designed for Neverwinter Nights (Lankveld et al. 2011a). In the present research, we investigate whether we can do the same thing in an actual modern commercial video game, in this case the game Fallout 3. We stored automat...

Grab samples of sediment were collected at 530 locations in Lake Michigan, primarily in the southeastern quarter of the lake. Each sample was analysed in the field and in the laboratory for fallout cesium-137. Twenty-five of the samples, collected near the mouth of the St Joseph River, were also analysed in the laboratory for 11 other man-made materials known to be discharged into the river. Tw...

Sector field ICP-MS has been used to determine 239+240 Pu activity and 240 Pu/ 239 Pu atom ratio profiles in a sediment core obtained in 1997 from the Danube Delta region of the Black Sea. The 239+240 Pu activity profile reveals the presence of a 1963 stratospheric fallout peak, along with two more recent peaks stemming from fluvial transport of Chernobyl Pu through the Danube watershed into th...