Evidence of 131I and (134,137)Cs activities in Bordeaux, France due to the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Following the Fukushima nuclear accident, low-background gamma spectrometry measurements were performed with HPGe detectors at the PRISNA platform located at the CENBG laboratory in Bordeaux, France. Different kinds of samples were collected and measured between March 26 and May 14, 2011. The first fission product observed was (131)I with maximum activity values of 2.4 mBq/m(3) in atmospheric dusts in air, 3.5 Bq/L in rain water, 15 Bq/kg in grass and 0.9 Bq/L in cow milk. The (134,137)Cs isotopes were also detected in air and in grass at a maximum level of 0.2 mBq/m(3) and 0.7 Bq/kg respectively, around one order of magnitude less than (131)I activity, but they were below detection limits in the other samples. All these activity values were consistent with others measured in France by IRSN and were well below those reported in May 1986 after the Chernobyl accident.

Measurement of the ßß decay half-life of 130Te with the NEMO-3 detector.

We report results from the NEMO-3 experiment based on an exposure of 1275 days with 661 g of (130)Te in the form of enriched and natural tellurium foils. The ßß decay rate of (130)Te is found to be greater than zero with a significance of 7.7 standard deviations and the half-life is measured to be T(½)(2ν) = [7.0 ± 0.9(stat) ± 1.1(syst)] × 10(20) yr. This represents the most precise measurement of this half-life yet published and the first real-time observation of this decay.

First results of the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay with the NEMO 3 detector.

The NEMO 3 detector, which has been operating in the Fréjus underground laboratory since February 2003, is devoted to the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (beta beta 0v). The half-lives of the two neutrino double-beta decay (beta beta 2v) have been measured for 100Mo and 82Se. After 389 effective days of data collection from February 2003 until September 2004 (phase I), no evidence for neutrinoless double-beta decay was found from approximately 7 kg of 100Mo and approximately 1 kg of 82Se. The corresponding limits are T1/2(beta beta0v) > 4.6 x 10(23) yr for 100Mo and T1/2(beta beta 0v) > 1.0 x 10(23) yr for 82Se (90% C.L.). Depending on the nuclear matrix element calculation, the limits for the effective Majorana neutrino mass are < 0.7-2.8 e/v for 100Mo and < 1.7-4.9 eV for 82Se.