Atmospheric deposition of 7Be by rain events, in central Argentina

JURI AYUB, J.; DI GREGORIO, D.; HUCK, H.; VELASCO, H.; RIZZOTTO, M.

AIP CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

American Intitute of Physics

Lugar: New York; Año: 2008 vol. 1034 p. 107 - 111

0094-243X

Beryllium-7 is a natural radionuclide that enters to the ecosystems through wet and dry depositions and has numerous environmental applications in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Atmospheric wet deposition of  7Be was measured in central Argentina (San Luis  province). Rain traps were installed (1m above ground) and individual rain events have been collected. Rain samples were filtered and analyzed by gamma spectrometry. The gamma counting was undertaken using a 1.033 kg intrinsic high-purity natural germanium crystal built by Princeton Gamma-Tech. The cryostat was made from electroformed high-purity copper using ultralow-background technology. The detector gamma efficiency was determined using a water solution with known amounts of chemical compounds containing long-lived natural radioisotpes.