Studies of radioactive contamination of Borne-Sulinowo military range in Poland

The results of studies of radioactive contamination of Borne Sulinowo military range is presented. Until 1991, this area was occupied by the former Soviet Army. No serious contamination with natural or artificial radionuclides has been found in the studied area. The activity of natural radionuclides such as 214Bi, 226Ra, 234Th, 224Ra, 228Ac and 214Pb in the soils ranges from 6-8 Bq/kg of soil, which is low when compared to industrial regions of Poland, where 18-36 Bq/kg of these radionuclides have been found. Also, contamination by 137Cs is considerably lower than in Eastern Poland. In about 70% of the studied samples, post-Chernobyl radiocesium contributed less than half of the total amount of this nuclide. It follows that post-Chernobyl fallout was low in the studied area. Moreover, the high level of l37Cs from global fallout in the examined samples manifests strong bonding of cesium in the surface layer of the soil.