Natural and man-made radionuclides and heavy metals in the atmosphere. A global perspective

The emissions of U, 226Ra, 210Pb, V, Pb, Cd and Hg into the global atmosphere are compared with the anthropogenic ones. With the exception of V the contribution from man-made sources to total atmospheric flows of these nuclides is estimated to be orders of magnitude lower than from the natural ones. The flows of ionizing radiation energy into the global atmosphere from nuclear weapon tests and production, nuclear power and coal burning are also compared with natural flows, which dominate the man-made ones by 4 orders of magnitude