135Cs/137Cs isotopic composition of environmental samples across Europe: Environmental transport and source term emission applications

Snow, Mathew S.; Snyder, Darin C.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.10.025

Title: ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotopic composition of environmental samples across Europe: Environmental transport and source term emission applications

Journal Article · 01 November 2015 · Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2015.10.025 · OSTI ID:1294348

Snow, Mathew S. ^[1]; Snyder, Darin C. ^[1]

Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotopic analyses represent an important tool for studying the fate and transport of radiocesium in the environment; in this work the ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotopic composition in environmental samples taken from across Europe is reported. Surface soil and vegetation samples from western Russia, Ukraine, Austria, and Hungary show consistent aged thermal fission product ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotope ratios of 0.58 ± 0.01 (age corrected to 1/1/15), with the exception of one sample of soil-moss from Hungary which shows an elevated ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs ratio of 1.78 ± 0.12. With the exception of the outlier sample from Hungary, surface soil/vegetation data are in quantitative agreement with values previously reported for soils within the Chernobyl exclusion zone, suggesting that radiocesium at these locations is primarily composed of homogenous airborne deposition from Chernobyl. Seawater samples taken from the Irish Sea show ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotope ratios of 1.22 ± 0.11 (age corrected to 1/1/15), suggesting aged thermal fission product Cs discharged from Sellafield. Furthermore, the differences in ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotope ratios between Sellafield, Chernobyl, and global nuclear weapons testing fallout indicate that ¹³⁵Cs/¹³⁷Cs isotope ratios can be utilized to discriminate between and track radiocesium transport from different nuclear production source terms, including major emission sources in Europe.

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Research Organization:: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC07-05ID14517

OSTI ID:: 1294348

Report Number(s):: INL/JOU-15-36733; PII: S0265931X15301417

Journal Information:: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Journal Name: Journal of Environmental Radioactivity Journal Issue: P1 Vol. 151; ISSN 0265-931X

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Fukushima Daiichi reactor source term attribution using cesium isotope ratios from contaminated environmental samples: ¹³⁵ Cs/ ¹³⁷ Cs isotopic analyses Snow, Mathew S.; Snyder, Darin C.; Delmore, James E. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, Vol. 30, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.7468	journal	January 2016
135Cs activity and 135Cs/137Cs atom ratio in environmental samples before and after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident Yang, Guosheng; Tazoe, Hirofumi; Yamada, Masatoshi Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24119	journal	April 2016
The role of mass spectrometry in radioactive contamination assessment after the Fukushima nuclear accident Bu, Wenting; Ni, Youyi; Steinhauser, Georg Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, Vol. 33, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1039/c7ja00401j	journal	January 2018
Ultra-trace determination of the ¹³⁵ Cs/ ¹³⁷ Cs isotopic ratio by thermal ionization mass spectrometry with application to Fukushima marine sediment samples Bu, Wenting; Tang, Lei; Liu, Xuemei Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, Vol. 34, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ja00380g	journal	January 2019

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