Determination of natural and artificial radioactivity levels in sediment in the Marmara Sea

Full text: The present paper reports the concentration levels of 239+240Pu, 137Cs and 40K in surficial sediment at 8 stations in the Marmara Sea of Turkey. The purpose of this paper is to follow up the earlier study and present results on the distributions of radionuclides in sediment of the Marmara Sea. A major part of pollutants transported by current systems are normally adsorbed on fine grained particles in suspension. The dissolved radionuclides in the Marmara Region rivers are finally transported along the Marmara Sea coastal area to the Marmara Sea. The sediment sample were collected on september 1998-2004. Results of the measurement for each station were compared between two sampling campaign in order to see the effect of the seasonal variations. 137Cs and 40K concentration levels were determined by gamma spectrometric method. 239+240Pu concentration level were determined by alpha spectrometric technique. 239+240Pu concentration result varies between 0.45 ± 0.04 - 0.10 ± 0.01 Bq/kg. The 40K content varies between 296 ± 47 - 437 ± 60 Bq/kg. The 137Cs activity result varies between 12.6 ± 2.6 - 44.1 ± 6.2 Bq/kg. (author)