Plutonium in Gorce Mountains area (Southern Poland)

Paper presents results of the plutonium deposition measurements in Gorce Mountains—a small part of western Polish Carpathians, Southern Poland where a national park was established in 1981. Samples were collected in both forest and alp areas. They were analyzed by means of alpha spectrometry preceded by radiochemical treatment. The results for activity concentration are then used to calculate cumulated deposition which range from 45.7 ± 4.3 to 164 ± 19 Bq/m2, what means that it reach in maximum almost three times higher value than UNSCEAR average for global fallout, expected for our latitude. The isotopic activity ratio 238Pu to 239+240Pu indicates global fallout as the main if not the only source of Pu. Nevertheless, presented results for plutonium reveal more uniform Pu deposition pattern in Gorce Mountains than it was observed for 137Cs in earlier study using the same samples.