Determination of 137Cs in the water system of a pre-Alpine lake

The aim of this study was to measure the Cs-137 activity derived from the Chernobyl accident in the water system of Lake Wallersee, a pre-Alpine lake in Austria within an area highly contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout. For this purpose, water and sediment samples of the inflows and the outflow of Lake Wallersee and lake Cs-137 water at different depths were collected in 2005. The obtained activity depth profile in the water body shows an exponential increase of Cs-137 activity in the lake water with increasing depth. Inflow and outflow sediment analyses exhibit a clear negative correlation between particle size and K-40 in sediment samples specific activity for Cs-137 and following a power function. In a first approach it was tried to calculate the catchment run-off factor of 137Cs during a period without heavy rainfalls. The result is in good agreement with run-off factors determined in other similar investigations in Austria. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.