Abstract
The activities of polonium 210Po in Vistula unfiltered water samples, collected from November 2002 to November 2003, were measured using the alpha spectrometry. In winter, the highest concentration of 210Po was in Vistula river water from Toruń (2.72 ± 0.04 Bq·m−3) and from the Wieprz river (5.46 ± 0.07 Bq·m−3 [Bequerel per cubic metre]), and the lowest was in water from Nida river (0.59 ± 0.02 Bq·m−3). During spring, the highest concentration of 210Po was observed in Vistula water collected in Dęblin (5.98 ± 0.03 Bq·m−3) and the lowest in water from the Narew river (1.20 ± 0.12 Bq·m−3). In summer, the highest concentration of 210Po was in Nogat river water collected in Malbork (3.18 ± 0.04 Bq·m−3) and the Bzura river (5.30 ± 0.02 Bq·m−3), the lowest in Wieprz river (0.49 ± 0.09 Bq·m−3) and Vistula river water from Kraków (1.44 ± 0.05 Bq·m−3). In autumn, the highest 210Po concentration was in Bzura river (8.93 ± 0.03 Bq·m−3), the lowest in Vistula water from Grudziądz (1.51 ± 0.04 Bq·m−3), and Toruń (1.89 ± 0.05 Bq·m−3). The highest quantity of 210Po was transported from Vistula catchments area to the Baltic Sea in spring and the lowest in summer. Annually, the southern Baltic Sea is enriched by about 73.7 GBq 210Po (with Leniwka and Nogat rivers), with 71.6 GBq going to Gdańsk Bay and 2.1 GBq to Vistula Lagoon. The highest surface 210Po runoff was observed in spring (to 1370 kBq·km−2·quarter−1 for Dunajec catchment's area), the lowest in summer (for Nida catchment's area to 100 kBq·km−2·quarter−1).
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Sciences and Informatysation of the financial support of this work under grant: KBN P04G03826, DS-8210-4-0086-6, DS-8210-4-0086-7 and BW/8000-5-0403-7.
Notes
*[m3.s−1] – a cubic meter per second.