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The article presents a study on the parallel monitoring of Radon 222 Rn at the top of Schauinsland mountain and the forests in South-West Germany which were conducted from November 2007 to April 2008. It states that the Radon was measured through two-filter detector and one-filter detector. It says that there was 87% concentration without precipitation and 74% with precipitation of Rn in the two major wind sectors that was covered by the forest.

The article focuses on the study which aims to investigate the meteorological condition that causes between the Rn measurements with one-and two-filter detectors. The sampling site is located in the Black Forest in South-West Germany, about 750 m North-East of the Schauinsland mountain top. Observations reveal that one- and two-filter systems are suitable for continuous monitoring in ground level air

Abstract: The Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) performs trace analysis measurements in both the frameworks of the German Integrated Measuring and Information system as well as of the International Monitoring System for verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. Therefore, different kinds of measurements of aerosol bound radionuclides as well as of radioactive noble gases in the atmosphere are performed. BfS as coordinating laboratory for trace analysis is responsible for the quality control. A quality assurance programme was set up with German institutions and expanded to European laboratories. The existing quality assurance programme of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation for measurements of aerosol bound radionuclides will be extended for noble gas measurements. Applied methods, achieved measurement results and the different kinds of quality assurance are presented and discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The measurement of radioxenons (133Xe, 131mXe, 133mXe, 135Xe) in the atmosphere is a keystone for the verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). At the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, BfS) activity concentrations of radioactive noble gases at several sites in Germany have been measured for more than 5 decades, initially to monitor nuclear facilities and since the mid-1990s also to support the development of measurement and monitoring systems and procedures for verification of the CTBT. Average 133Xe activity concentration in air measured daily at station RN33 of the International Monitoring System (IMS) of the CTBTO on Mt Schauinsland has decreased since 2008. Due to the decreasing radioxenon background in the atmosphere, laboratory measurements with less sensitive proportional counters developed in-house are increasingly replaced by an isotope specific β-γ laboratory system for radioxenon analyses. Six years of radioxenon activity concentrations measured with the β-γ laboratory system in weekly samples from monitoring sites in Germany are presented. Activity concentrations of 133Xe in southern Germany are now typically below 1 mBq m−3 and have decreased by an order of magnitude in the past 25 years. Magnitude and variability of 133Xe activity concentrations are generally larger in northern and western Germany compared to the south, most likely due to the prevailing wind directions in the region. Selected, but typical, periods of elevated radioxenon levels at the stations are investigated and the value of stack emission data is demonstrated. • 133Xe activity concentration in air has decreased from about 2008. • 133Xe and its variability is smaller in southern Germany. • Major emitter upwind of stations explains most but not all detections in network. • Smaller emitters are responsible for elevations on a local scale. • STAX data prove useful when investigating multi-source detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radioactive xenon monitoring is one of the main technologies used for the detection of underground nuclear explosions. Precise and reliable measurements of 131mXe, 133gXe, 133mXe, and 135gXe are required as part of the International Monitoring System for compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). For the first time, simultaneous testing of four highly sensitive and automated fieldable radioxenon measurement systems has been performed and compared to established laboratory techniques. In addition to an intercomparison of radioxenon monitoring equipment of different design, this paper also presents a set of more than 2000 measurements of activity concentrations of radioactive xenon made in the city of Freiburg, Germany in 2000. The intercomparison experiment showed, that the results from the newly developed systems agree with each other and the equipment fulfills the fundamental requirements for their use in the verification regime of the CTBT. For 24-h measurements, concentrations as low as 0.1 mBq m−3 were measured for atmospheric samples ranging in size from 10 to 80 m3. The 133Xe activity concentrations detected in the ambient air ranged from below 1 mBq m−3 to above 100 mBq m−3. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Relic munitions from warfare and intentional dumping contaminate coastal waters worldwide, with an estimated 300,000 tons in the German Baltic Sea alone. These contain toxic conventional explosive chemicals, including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), and 1,3-dinitrobenzene (DNB). Corrosion of metal munition housings in seawater releases these munition chemicals (MCs) to the marine environment. The current study performed detailed environmental sampling throughout German waters of the southwest Baltic Sea in 2017 and 2018, and measured MCs in water, suspended particles, and sediments. At least one MC was detected in nearly every water sample, from sub-pmol/L up to several thousand pmol/L. Most MC were in the dissolved phase, not on suspended particles, and MC content in sediments was patchy and generally low. TNT levels were especially high in Kiel Bay, whereas RDX and DNB concentrations were highest in Lübeck Bay, likely reflecting regional differences in munitions types. A TNT module was developed and implemented in the General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM), incorporating TNT input to the water column by dissolution and removal by microbial degradation/transformation. Simulated TNT distributions matched observed environmental patterns well, indicating good parametrization of the primary controls. Dissolved concentrations of the target MCs were generally far below acute or chronic toxicity levels for aquatic organisms, but the highest observed concentrations approached toxic levels, especially for DNB. The inventory of dissolved MC in the study region was approximately 3000 kg, implying that current contamination levels can be sustained continuously for over 800 years by existing munitions on the seafloor., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

For almost half a century weekly samples for the measurement of krypton-85 ( 85 Kr) activity concentrations in surface air have been collected by the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS), Germany. Sampling started at Freiburg (230m asl) in 1973, Mt Schauinsland (1205m asl) in 1976 and Mt Jungfraujoch in Switzerland (3454 asl) in 1990. Distinct maxima in the time series of atmospheric 85 Kr activity concentration are caused by emissions from nuclear reprocessing plants in Europe, mainly the La Hague, France, and Sellafield, UK, reprocessing plants. Between 1970 and 1990 peak activity concentrations measured in winter along the Rhine Rift in Freiburg are often higher than at Mt Schauinsland, due to emissions from the operating pilot reprocessing plant in Karlsruhe - approximately 130 km to the north - and large-scale inversions that inhibit exchange of air masses within the Rhine Rift with those at higher altitudes. From the early 1990s onwards, after the shut-down of the pilot plant, differences between Freiburg and Schauinsland are much smaller. Activity concentrations measured at Jungfraujoch are generally lower and close to baseline levels, due to its location in the free troposphere. Weekly baseline and average 85 Kr activity concentration in the atmosphere in Central Europe were modelled from almost 12,000 individual measurements at 11 stations. The baseline and average have continuously increased, interrupted by a relatively stable period between 2009 and the end of 2014 with a baseline activity concentration of about 1.39 Bq/m 3 . Depending on the geographical location and hydrological conditions, the modelled baseline or average 85 Kr activity concentration time series can be used as input functions for the dating of young groundwater., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

After the accident in the Japanese Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 large amounts of radioactivity were released and distributed in the atmosphere. Among them were also radioactive noble gas isotopes which can be used as tracers to test global atmospheric circulation models. This work presents unique measurements of the radionuclide (133)Xe from Fukushima in the upper troposphere above Germany. The measurements involve air sampling in a research jet aircraft followed by chromatographic xenon extraction and ultra-low background gas counting with miniaturized proportional counters. With this technique a detection limit of the order of 100 (133)Xe atoms in liter-scale air samples (corresponding to about 100 mBq/m(3)) is achievable. Our results provide proof that the (133)Xe-rich ground level air layer from Fukushima was lifted up to the tropopause and distributed hemispherically. Moreover, comparisons with ground level air measurements indicate that the arrival of the radioactive plume at high altitude over Germany occurred several days before the ground level plume., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Data from three years of operation of a low-level aerosol sampler and analyzer (RASA) at Schauinsland monitoring station are reported. The system is part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) for verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The fully automatic system is capable to measure aerosol borne gamma emitters with high sensitivity and routinely quantifies 7Be and 212Pb. The system had a high level of data availability of 90% within the reporting period. A daily screening process rendered 66 tentative identifications of verification relevant radionuclides since the system entered IMS operation in February 2004. Two of these were real events and associated to a plausible source. The remaining 64 cases can consistently be explained by detector background and statistical phenomena. Inter-comparison with data from a weekly sampler operated at the same station shows instabilities of the calibration during the test phase and a good agreement since certification of the system.