Published July 2017 | Version v1
Miscellaneous Metadata-only

239+240Pu to 137Cs activity ratio: A proxy for comparing vertical and lateral radionuclide mobility

Creators

  • 1. Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Basel (Switzerland)
  • 2. Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Laboratory, Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
  • 3. Chemistry Department, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado (United States)
  • 4. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
  • 5. Radioanalytical Reference Laboratory, Central Agricultural Ofice, Food and Feed Safety Directorate (Hungary)
  • 6. Dipartimento di Agraria, Universita degli Studi 'Mediterranea ' di Reggio Calabria (Italy)

Description

Plutonium (239+240Pu) fallout, like anthropogenic caesium- 137 (137Cs), originates from past aerial nuclear weapons testing and potentially from nuclear power plant (NPP) accidents. Unlike for 137Cs only few published studies have reported about the use of plutonium isotopes (239+240Pu) as soil erosion tracers. Although these investigations generally concluded on the suitability of Pu isotopes for erosion assessment, one unknown, when using 239+240Pu, is related to its specific mobility within the soil and its potential preferential transport during soil erosion. This is the first study to explore whether 239+240Pu (like 137Cs) is preferentially eroded by water using the activity ratio of 239+240Pu to 137Cs. Our tested study site is located in the Haean catchment of the Republic of Korea, where intense agriculture and high rainfall erosivity associated with the Asian monsoon cause recurrent high soil losses.

Part of:
Soils Newsletter, Vol. 40, No. 1, July 2017

Additional details

Identifiers

URL
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Newsletters/snl-40-1.pdf; http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/index.html; http://www.fao.org/ag/portal/index_en.html;

Publishing Information

Imprint Title
Soils Newsletter, Vol. 40, No. 1, July 2017
Imprint Pagination
40 p.
Journal Page Range
p. 9
ISSN
1011-2650
Report number
INIS-XA--18K2745

INIS

Country of Publication
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
49104053
Subject category
S54: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; S61: RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY;
Descriptors DEI
ACCIDENTS; AGRICULTURE; CESIUM; CESIUM 137; EROSION; FALLOUT; MOBILITY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR POWER; NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES; REPUBLIC OF KOREA; SOILS
Descriptors DEC
ALKALI METALS; ASIA; BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; CESIUM ISOTOPES; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ELEMENTS; EXPLOSIONS; INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI; ISOTOPES; METALS; NUCLEAR FACILITIES; NUCLEI; ODD-EVEN NUCLEI; POWER; POWER PLANTS; RADIOISOTOPES; THERMAL POWER PLANTS; WEAPONS; YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES

Optional Information

Notes
Ref., 1 fig.