Plutonium traces in atmospheric precipitation and in aerosols from Krakow and Bialystok

The appearance of plutonium isotopes in the environment was connected with the human activity, mainly: nuclear weapon tests (global fallout), nuclear accident in Chernobyl (1986), disintegration of satellite SNAP 9 (1963) and releases from nuclear reprocessing factories. At present, the concentration of plutonium in the atmosphere is very small but still observable.The aim of the study is to report and to discuss the results of plutonium alpha-emitters determination from sampling aerosols in air (Krakow 1990–1998, 2001–2002 and Bialystok 1996–1998, 2001) and in precipitation (Krakow 2005–2006). Plutonium activity concentration in air samples (in Krakow and Bialystok) varied in range: 0.22±0.04 nBq/mOne of the mechanisms responsible for the airborne plutonium is resuspension but on the other hand the main source of plutonium in the air seems to be marines aerosols from North See. This new hypothesis will be checked during the future research. The most interesting finding is the seasonal variation of plutonium air concentration. The conclusion from calculated ratio of plutonium isotopes (