Plutonium mobilization from sedimentary sources to solution in the marine environment

Conference · Mon Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1979

OSTI ID:5790726

Noshkin, V E; Wong, K M

Inventories of plutonium radionuclides greatly in excess of global fallout levels persists in the benthic environments of Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls. It now appears that the atolls have reached a chemical steadystate condition with respect to the partitioning of /sup 239 +240/Pu between solution and solid phases of the environment. The mobilized /sup 239 +240/Pu has solute-like characteristics, passes rapidly and readily through dialysis membranes, has adsorption characteristics similar to those of fallout plutonium in the open ocean, and exists in solution primarily as some oxidized +5 or +6 chemical species. Water-column profiles of /sup 239 +240/Pu taken outside the atolls show a plutonium excess in the deep water mass. This remobilized /sup 239 +240/Pu possibly originates from the contaminated sediments previously deposited on the outer slopes of the atolls and surrounding basins.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5790726
• Report Number(s): UCRL-83049; CONF-791050-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

520301* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Water-- (1987)
520302 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Aquatic Ecosystems & Food Chains-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BIKINI
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DATA FORMS
DISSOLUTION
ENIWETOK
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
EQUILIBRIUM
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FALLOUT
FLUIDS
HEAVY NUCLEI
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
ISLANDS
ISOTOPES
LIQUIDS
MARSHALL ISLANDS
MASS TRANSFER
MICRONESIA
MONITORING
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
OCEANIA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACIFIC OCEAN
PHASE STUDIES
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 240
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
SEAS
SEAWATER
SEDIMENTS
SOLIDS
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
SURFACE WATERS
TABLES
UPWELLING
WATER
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES