Behavior of Beryllium-7 in Air in the Region of the Nuclear Industrial Complex in Sosnovyi Bor, Leningrad Oblast, Russia

Abstract

The ⁷Be activity in near-surface atmospheric aerosols and in atmospheric precipitations that fell out on the territory of the Aleksandrov Research Institute of Technology during the eight-year period covering the end of the 24th and the beginning of the 25th solar activity cycles (2016–2023) are reported. The many-year mean volume activity of ⁷Be in atmospheric aerosols was calculated from the monthly data of the radiation monitoring of the atmosphere at four posts of the automated radiation monitoring system; the value of 3.2 mBq/m³ was obtained. The seasonal trends in variation of the ⁷Be volume activity in air with a gradual increase from January to a maximum in June, followed by a decrease in the second half of the year, were determined. The inverse dependence of the annual mean volume activity of ⁷Be in the aerosols on the solar activity (Wolf numbers) was confirmed. The correlation coefficients of the ⁷Be activity in aerosols with the weather parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, atmospheric pressure, and amount of precipitations) were calculated. The independence of the ⁷Be content in atmospheric aerosols from anthropogenic factors and trends in the variation of its volume activity during a year cycle allow ⁷Be to be used in the future as a natural tracer for evaluating the air pollution with manmade radionuclides.