Dataset: underway radiation monitoring

Name: Surface isotope concentrations of Cesium 137 from underway NAI system from KOK1108 cruise in June 2011 in the Western equatorial Pacific and Kuroshio Extension (Fukushima Radionuclide Levels project)
Published: 2012-03-28
Keywords: oceans

Cite This Dataset

Spatial Extent: N:38.0008 E:147.1517 S:33.9577 W:141.3772

Project:

Establishing Radionuclide Levels in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans Originating from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Facility (Fukushima Radionuclide Levels)

Principal Investigator:

Dr Katherine Higley (Oregon State University, OSU)

Co-Principal Investigator:

Dr Abi T Farsoni (Oregon State University, OSU)

Contact:

Mr Jarvis Caffrey (Oregon State University, OSU)

BCO-DMO Data Manager:

Theresa McKee (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI BCO-DMO)

Version:

28 March 2012

Version Date:

2012-03-28

Validated:

Yes

Current State:

Final no updates expected

Surface isotope concentrations of Cesium 137 from underway NAI system from KOK1108 cruise in June 2011 in the Western equatorial Pacific and Kuroshio Extension (Fukushima Radionuclide Levels project)

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Description

Continuous Cesium isotope Cs-137 concentration from surface water flow through a NaI(Tl) enclosure (underway monitoring system) from lab of Katherine Higley, Oregon State University.

Related files and references:

Caffrey, J.A., Higley, K.A., Farsoni, A.T., et al. Development and deployment of an underway radioactive cesium monitor off the Japanese coast near Fukushima Dai’ J. Environ. Rad., In Press, 2012. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.12.015

Methods & Sampling

Surface seawater was pumped continuously into a detection chamber located in the ship's laboratory. An OSU-constructed PVC enclosure housed a water-tight 2NaI(Tl) Scintillation detector unit [Canberra Model 802-335]. Pulse signals were processed in a customized compact digital MCA [Avicenna RX1200] and output was captured and displayed on PC through custom spectroscopy software [Avicenna RayPanel].

Pulses in the region corresponding to Cs137 near 662 keV were counted continuously, and background levels of Cs137 measured in the Port of Yokohama were subtracted. Periodic recording of activity was performed manually at varying intervals, dependent upon the seawater activity, to minimize counting error. Concentration was determined through a calibrated linear response curve using known concentrations of Cs137. Signal contributions from the Cs134 co-contaminant (measured in seawater at a 1:1 activity ratio) were mitigated by including a 1:1 activity ratio of Cs134 in the calibration standard.

Data Processing Description

Cs-137 region of interest counts with high counting uncertainty were grouped with neighboring counts to improve uncertainty, at the expense of some geographic/temporal resolution of concentration.

Data Files

File
underway_radiation.csv (Comma Separated Values (.csv), 10.21 KB) MD5:767b88fa5474c29548c582474ad1fca6 Primary data file for dataset ID 3633

More Information about this dataset

Funding Sources

Funding Source	Award Number
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation	GBMF2724

Deployments

Deployment	Synonyms	Start Date	Platform	Investigator
KOK1108	Fukushima KOK	2011-06-04	R/V Ka`imikai-O-Kanaloa	Kenneth O. Buesseler (Chief Scientist)	data info

Instruments

Underway radioactive cesium monitor

Supplied Name: underway radioactive cesium monitor

Supplied Description:

Instrument Type

Generic Name: Underway radioactive cesium monitor

Acronym: Uway Cs Monitor

Generic Description:

An OSU-constructed PVC enclosure housed a water-tight 2"x2" NaI(Tl) Scintillation detector unit [Canberra Model 802-335]. Pulse signals were processed in a customized compact digital MCA [Avicenna RX1200] and output was captured and displayed on PC through custom spectroscopy software [Avicenna RayPanel].

Parameters

Date and time formats are described in python strftime() syntax.

Supplied Name	Supplied description	Supplied Units	Standard Name
lon	longitude	decimal degrees	lon
lat	latitude	decimal degrees	lat
date	Date of sample	YYYYMMDD	date
time	time of cast	hhmm	time
date_local	Date (local) of sample	YYYYMMDD	date_local
time_local	time (local) of cast	hhmm	time_local
Cs137_NaI	total Cesium-137	Bq/liter	Cs137_NaI
Cs137_NaI_stdv	total Cesium-137 standard deviation	Bq/liter	Cs137_NaI_stdv

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Database

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Dataset: underway radiation monitoring