Origin of artificial radionuclides in soil and sediment from North Wales
| Autor: | Gareth T. W. Law, L. Keith Fifield, Hamza Al-Qasmi, Francis R. Livens |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Geologic Sediments
Water Pollutants Radioactive 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis Geochemistry chemistry.chemical_element 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Mining engineering Radiation Monitoring TRACER Environmental Chemistry Soil Pollutants Radioactive Seawater Waste Management and Disposal 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Radioisotopes Radionuclide Wales General Medicine Natural uranium Uranium Particulates Pollution Nuclear reprocessing chemistry Geology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of environmental radioactivity. |
| ISSN: | 1879-1700 |
| Popis: | During the operations at the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing complex, artificial radionuclides are discharged to the Irish Sea under authorisation, where they are dispersed. In this study, the southern distribution and transport of Sellafield derived radionuclides have been investigated. Both natural and artificial radionuclides have been studied in a soil core from the riverbank of the Afon Goch in Anglesey, North Wales. Particulate input is dominant for all artificial radionuclides (including the more soluble (137)Cs and (236)U) with an estimated lag time of about a decade. The preferential northward seawater movement in the NE Irish Sea limits solution input of (137)Cs and (236)U to the areas south of Sellafield. The relatively long lag time reflects both the water circulation pattern and distance between the study site in north Wales and the source point in Cumbria. Two redox active zones are observed in the top and the bottom of this core, although there is no evidence for any redistribution of Pu and natural uranium by these redox processes. However, (236)U, derived from irradiated uranium, showed variable distribution in the core. This could be a potential response to the geochemical conditions, showing that (236)U may be a promising tracer for the environmental processes and a signature of the Sellafield historical discharges of irradiated uranium. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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