Current assessment of integrated content of long-lived radionuclides in soils of the head part of the East Ural Radioactive Trace

Based on the datasets obtained during investigations from 2003 to 2012, the spatial distributions of 90Sr, 137Cs, and 239,240Pu content in the soils of the head part of the East Ural Radioactive Trace (EURT) were mapped using the geographic information system ArcGIS. Taking into account the presence of spatial autocorrelation and anisotropy in the source data, an ordinary kriging method was applied to interpolate values of radionuclide contamination density at unsampled places. Further geostatistical data analysis was performed to determine the basic parameters of spatial dependencies and to integrally assess the contamination by long-lived radionuclides in soils of the central, east peripheral, and west peripheral parts of the trace. This analysis was based on simplified geometric models (sector- and rectangle-shaped areas). The Monte Carlo method was used to quantitatively assess the uncertainty of the values for the integrated quantities resulting from the statistical errors of the source data approximation. •We investigated 102 soil samples in 2003–2012 at different distances from PA Mayak.•We mapped spatial distribution of 90Sr, 137Cs, and 239,240Pu at this area by ArcGIS.•Integrated content based on sector- and rectangle-shaped models are similar.•The studied area clearly split into central, west, and east parts.•Radionuclide content of the central part is higher two orders than of west and east. Capsule abstract: The spatial distribution of 90Sr, 137Cs, and 239,240Pu at the EURT area by ArcGIS.