Further studies of radionuclides in Fucus vesiculosus from the Baltic sea

Following the Chernobyl accident Fucus vesiculosus were used as bioindicator for the turn-over of radiocaesium and plutonium in the coastal zone of the Baltic sea. Results from 1991 were compared with those previously obtained during 1986 and 1987 and also pre-Chernobyl data. The results shows a long ecological residence time for radiocaesium in the water body compared to other marginal seas due to outflow from rivers draining contaminated land and the anti-clockwise circulation in the Baltic sea. The impact of plutonium from the Chernobyl accident was rather small and the results shows that plutonium is very rapidly transferred to the sediments present either in the immediate fallout or in the subsequent outflow from rivers