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Hirose K. Review of the sources and behaviors of plutonium isotopes in the atmosphere and ocean. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RADIOACTIVITY 2024; 277:107466. [PMID: 38838510 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2023] [Revised: 05/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/07/2024]
Abstract
Plutonium, as well as fission products such as 137Cs, had been released into the earth environment in 1945 after the first atmospheric nuclear explosion of plutonium bomb in the desert of New Mexico (USA, July 16) and later over Nagasaki (August 9), followed then by many other explosions. Thus, plutonium cycling in the atmosphere and ocean has become a major public concern as a result of the radiological and chemical toxicity of plutonium. However, plutonium isotopes and 137Cs are important transient tracers of biogeochemical and physical processes in the environment, respectively. In this review, we show that both physical and chemical approaches are needed to comprehensively understand the behaviors of plutonium in the atmosphere and ocean. In the atmosphere, plutonium and 137Cs attach with aerosols; thus, plutonium moves according to physical and chemical processes in connection with aerosols; however, since plutonium is a chemically reactive element, its behavior in an aqueous environment is more complicated, because biogeochemical regulatory factors, in addition to geophysical regulatory factors, must be considered. Meanwhile, 137Cs is chemically inert in aqueous environments. Therefore, the biogeochemical characteristics of plutonium can be elucidated through a comparison with those of 137Cs, which show conservative properties and moves according to physical processes. Finally, we suggest that monitoring of both plutonium and 137Cs can help elucidate geophysical and biogeochemical changes from climate changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katsumi Hirose
- Laboratory for Environmental Research at Mount Fuji, Okubo Shinjyuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
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Kashparov V, Kirieiev S, Yoschenko V, Levchuk S, Holiaka D, Zhurba M, Bogdan L, Vyshnevskyi D, Oughton DH. Assessment of exposures to firefighters from wildfires in heavily contaminated areas of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RADIOACTIVITY 2024; 274:107410. [PMID: 38457870 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2023] [Revised: 02/18/2024] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess the exposures received by firefighters engaged in extinguishing the large-scale wildfires in the most contaminated areas of the Ukrainian part of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in 2016 and 2020. The assessments are based on measurements of radionuclide airborne concentrations in the breathing zones of workers and at the aerosol sampling stations of the automated radiation monitoring system operated by SSE Ecocenter. During the wildfires, the radionuclide airborne concentrations increased by orders of magnitude compared to the background levels, reaching maximum values in the firefighting area of 1.20 ± 0.01 Bq m-3 for 90Sr, 0.18 ± 0.01 Bq m-3 for 137Cs, (1.8 ± 0.3) ∙10-4 Bq m-3 for 238Pu, (4.5 ± 0.7) ∙10-4 Bq m-3 for 239-240Pu, and (8.0 ± 1.3) ∙10-3 Bq m-3 for 241Pu. The internal effective doses to firefighters due to inhaled radionuclides did not exceed 2 μSv h-1 and were 3-5 times lower compared to the external dose of gamma radiation. Thus, the time of firefighting in the ChEZ will be limited by the external dose.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valery Kashparov
- Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Chabany, Kyiv region, Ukraine; Center for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
| | - Serhii Kirieiev
- Chornobyl Ecocentre, State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Chornobyl, Ukraine
| | - Vasyl Yoschenko
- Institute of Environmental Radioactivity at Fukushima University, Fukushima, Japan.
| | - Sviatoslav Levchuk
- Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Chabany, Kyiv region, Ukraine
| | - Dmytrii Holiaka
- Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Chabany, Kyiv region, Ukraine
| | - Marina Zhurba
- Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology of National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Chabany, Kyiv region, Ukraine
| | - Leonid Bogdan
- Chornobyl Ecocentre, State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, Chornobyl, Ukraine
| | - Denys Vyshnevskyi
- Chornobyl Radiation Ecological Biosphere Reserve, Chornobyl, Ukraine
| | - Deborah H Oughton
- Center for Environmental Radioactivity (CERAD), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
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Stäger F, Zok D, Schiller AK, Feng B, Steinhauser G. Disproportionately High Contributions of 60 Year Old Weapons- 137Cs Explain the Persistence of Radioactive Contamination in Bavarian Wild Boars. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2023; 57:13601-13611. [PMID: 37646445 PMCID: PMC10501199 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c03565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Revised: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/01/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023]
Abstract
Radionuclides released from nuclear accidents or explosions pose long-term threats to ecosystem health. A prominent example is wild boar contamination in central Europe, which is notorious for its persistently high 137Cs levels. However, without reliable source identification, the origin of this decades old problem has been uncertain. Here, we target radiocesium contamination in wild boars from Bavaria. Our samples (2019-2021) range from 370 to 15,000 Bq·kg-1 137Cs, thus exceeding the regulatory limits (600 Bq·kg-1) by a factor of up to 25. Using an emerging nuclear forensic fingerprint, 135Cs/137Cs, we distinguished various radiocesium source legacies in their source composition. All samples exhibit signatures of mixing of Chornobyl and nuclear weapons fallout, with 135Cs/137Cs ratios ranging from 0.67 to 1.97. Although Chornobyl has been widely believed to be the prime source of 137Cs in wild boars, we find that "old" 137Cs from weapons fallout significantly contributes to the total level (10-68%) in those specimens that exceeded the regulatory limit. In some cases, weapons-137Cs alone can lead to exceedances of the regulatory limit, especially in samples with a relatively low total 137Cs level. Our findings demonstrate that the superposition of older and newer legacies of 137Cs can vastly surpass the impact of any singular yet dominant source and thus highlight the critical role of historical releases of 137Cs in current environmental pollution challenges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Stäger
- Institute
of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30419 Hannover, Germany
| | - Dorian Zok
- Institute
of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30419 Hannover, Germany
| | - Anna-Katharina Schiller
- Institute
of Radioecology and Radiation Protection, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30419 Hannover, Germany
| | - Bin Feng
- Institute
of Inorganic Chemistry, Leibniz Universität
Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
- TU
Wien, Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry & TRIGA Center
Atominstitut, 1060 Vienna, Austria
| | - Georg Steinhauser
- TU
Wien, Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry & TRIGA Center
Atominstitut, 1060 Vienna, Austria
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Movsisyan N, Albanese S, Pyuskyulyan K, Hovhannisyan S, Belyaeva O. The spatiotemporal variation, background, and baseline activities of radionuclides in the soil of Aragats Massif (Armenia). ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023:10.1007/s11356-023-28231-3. [PMID: 37330442 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-28231-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2022] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The present study was performed to reveal the distribution patterns and spatiotemporal changes of radionuclides in the soil of the highest mountain of Armenia: Aragats Massif. In this regard, two surveys were implemented in 2016-2018 and 2021 with an altitudinal sampling strategy. The activities of radionuclides were determined by gamma spectrometry system with HPGe detector (CANBERRA). Correlation and linear regression analysis were applied to determine the dependence of radionuclides' distribution from altitude. Classical and robust statistical methods were used to assess the local background and baseline values. In two sampling profiles, the spatiotemporal variation of radionuclides was studied. A significant correlation was revealed between 137Cs and altitude pointing to global atmospheric migration as a primary source of 137Cs in Armenian environment. The predicted values of regression model revealed a 0.08-Bq/kg and 0.03-Bq/kg increase of 137Cs in each m on average, for the old and new survey, respectively. The assessment of background activities of NOR (naturally occurring radionuclides) enables setting the local background for 226Ra, 232Th, and 40 K in soils of Aragats Massif: 831.3 ± 20.2 Bq/kg and 540.6 ± 18.3 Bq/kg for 40 K, 85.5 ± 3.1 Bq/kg and 27.7 ± 2.6 Bq/kg for 226Ra, and 66.8 ± 3.2 and 46.4 ± 3.0 Bq/kg for 232Th, respectively, for the years of 2016-2018 and 2021. 137Cs baseline activity was estimated by altitude: 350 ± 3.7 Bq/kg and 108 ± 2.5 Bq/kg, respectively, for the years of 2016-2018 and 2021.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nona Movsisyan
- Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies (CENS) of NAS RA, 68 Abovyan Str., 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia.
| | - Stefano Albanese
- Department of Earth, Environment and Resources Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cintia 21, 80126, Naples, Italy
| | - Konstantin Pyuskyulyan
- Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies (CENS) of NAS RA, 68 Abovyan Str., 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
- Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, 0911, Metsamor, Armavir Marz, Republic of Armenia
| | - Spartak Hovhannisyan
- Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies (CENS) of NAS RA, 68 Abovyan Str., 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
| | - Olga Belyaeva
- Center for Ecological-Noosphere Studies (CENS) of NAS RA, 68 Abovyan Str., 0025, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
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Ingremeau JJ, Saunier O. Investigations on the source term of the detection of radionuclides in North of Europe in June 2020. EPJ NUCLEAR SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGIES 2022. [DOI: 10.1051/epjn/2022003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
During the second half of June 2020, small quantities of artificial radionuclides (60Co, 134Cs, 137Cs, 103Ru, 106Ru, 141Ce, 95Nb, 95Zr) have been detected in northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, Estonia), the source of the release being unknown. The measured values were close to detection limits and didn’t represent any health issue. This paper presents the investigations carried out at IRSN in order to identify the release origin. The most probable source location and the release magnitude estimation are briefly presented. This recent set of detection is also compared to previous similar ones. This paper mainly focuses on the investigations which have been performed in order to answer two main questions. First “from which type and part of a nuclear installation the release could come from?”. Although no certainty is achievable, the most probable source is found to be a spent primary ion exchange resin. The second question addressed was “how this radiological inventory could have been released into the atmosphere?”. But, mainly due to the lack of information, no satisfying answer has been found to that question and what really happened remains unknown.
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