Radionuclide distributions in deep-ocean sediment cores. Progress report, 1 October 1976 -- 31 December 1977

Disruption, in the past year, of the supply of 237Pu tracer from Oak Ridge caused us to put more of effort into analyses of core samples previously collected, and into data collation, than into the laboratory experiments originally projected. Accompanying this report are two review papers, one for a Congressional Committee and one in press, a report in press of a device for conducting microbiological tracer experiments under controlled atmospheres, and a description of radionuclide distributions in sediments of Atlantic and Pacific solid waste dump sites. Described in the body of the report are experiments relating the time course of association of 237Pu tracer with diatoms (dead or alive) or glass beads, to the constitution of the media, the history of the cells, or the presence of exometabolites. Also described are studies of the differential removal of 239240Pu, 241Am, and 137Cs from coastal seawater currents contaminated by waste released from a fuel-reprocessing facility