In this video we extract radioactive salts containing cesium137 from blueberries grown near chernobyl.

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Cesium 137 is a radioactive isotope and one of the major components of nuclear fission waste. The various nuclear weapons tests and nuclear reactor accidents has spread detectable amounts all over the world. I obtained some blueberries that originally came from europe and have detectable cesium content. but i wanted to quantify it accurately so to perform the analysis i concentrated the caesium into a few grams of salt by "digesting" the blueberries with sulfuric acid. The acid completely destroys all organic matter and leaves behind the sulfate salts of any remaining inorganic elements including caesium. Using the builtin detection and analysis functions of my radiacode i was able to determine the activity was 150Bq. Since i started with a 60g sample, this meant the bulk activity was 2500Bq/kg. For comparison, the maximum allowed activity for food in most countries is 100Bq/kg, so the blueberries exceeded that by 25 times.

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