Activity concentration of caesium-137 in seawater and plankton of the Pomeranian Bay (the Southern Baltic Sea) before and after flood in 1997

Abstract Activity coefficients of 137 Cs determined during culminating flood waters in August 1997 in the estuary of the Oder River, discharging to the Pomeranian Bay as well as in the coastal and open-seawaters of the Bay, did not show enhanced levels of the nuclide as compared to those measured before the flood. It is thus concluded that the flood did not contribute to releasing the nuclide from eroded soil particles. The bioconcentration factors of 137 Cs in the riverine plankton has been found to be one to two orders of magnitude higher than those determined in the Pomeranian Bay plankton.