Source reconstruction via deposition measurements of an undeclared radiological atmospheric release

Van Leuven, Stijn; De Meutter, Pieter; Camps, Johan; Termonia, Piet; Delcloo, Andy

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9199-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9199-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9199-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 16

Research article

|

25 Aug 2025

Research article |

| 25 Aug 2025

Source reconstruction via deposition measurements of an undeclared radiological atmospheric release

Stijn Van Leuven, Pieter De Meutter, Johan Camps, Piet Termonia, and Andy Delcloo

Data sets

Data for "Source reconstruction via deposition measurements of an undeclared radiological atmospheric release" S. Van Leuven https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15594250

Model code and software

FREAR: adjusted R scripts for deposition S. Van Leuven https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14525978

FREAR source code P. De Meutter et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4588282

FLEXPART 10.4 I. Pisso et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3542278

Short summary

We use deposition measurements to trace the source of the radioactive isotope ¹⁰⁶Ru released into the atmosphere in 2017, which led to detections in Europe and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Most frequently, measurements of air concentration are used for such purposes. Our research shows that, while air concentration data can provide more precise results, deposition measurements can still effectively pinpoint the release location, offering a less costly and more versatile alternative.