A theoretical description of diffusion and migration of 137Cs in soil

Careful measurements of activity concentrations of 137Cs in soil samples taken layer by layer in autumn of 1999 in Slovenia are confronted with a prediction based on the diffusion–convection equation with a boundary condition which — unlike the boundary conditions applied in the literature so far — conserves the deposited activity over time, except for the natural decay. It is shown that it is essential to consider the deposits from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests and the Chernobyl accident to arrive at a good fit to the measured data. The corresponding Greenʹs function as well as the diffusion constant and migration speed based on the analysis are given.