Scientists' Contributions

Moss Biomonitoring Technique of Atmospheric Deposition of Heavy Metals in Bulgaria - Current Results

J. Stamenov¹, M. Frontasieva², L. Yurukova³, M. Jovtchev¹, A. Ganeva³, M. Mitrikov⁴, I. Batov⁵, K. Damov⁵, R. Kirova², E. Geleva¹, E. Marinova¹, B. Vachev¹

    The present paper treats the heavy metals atmospheric deposition and presents the work performed and financially supported by joint JINR - INRNE project "Atmospheric Deposition of Heavy Metals in Rural and Urban Areas of Bulgaria Studied by the Moss Biomonitoring Technique Employing Nuclear and Related Analytical Techniques and GIS Technology" have started in the middle of 2000. This project develops in the framework of REGATA Project (Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Slovakia) and is connected with the European moss-monitoring programme " Atmospheric Heavy Metals Deposition in Europe - Estimation Based on Moss Analysis". Precise measurements of low concentrations of heavy and toxic elements by NAA are made in 2-MW pulsed fast reactor of JINR-Dubna-neutron flux 10^12n/(cm2s); alpha-spectrometers with Ge(Li) detectors and ORTEC electronics In addition to heavy metals deposition radionuclids content of moss samples was investigated in INRNE. GIS and GPS technology is used to georeference the samplings points and to map the deposition distribution. The preliminary results of Summer'2000 expedition and samples analysis are presented and discussed.