Plutonium fractionation in southern Baltic Sea sediments

Abstract

In this study, different chemical plutonium fractions (dissolved in water, connected to carbonates, connected to oxides, complexed with organic matter, mineral acids soluble and the rest) in sediments from the Vistula River estuary, the Gdańsk Basin and the Bornholm Deep were determined. The distribution of ^239+240Pu in analysed sediments samples was not uniform but dependent on its chemical form, depth and the sediment geomorphology. The highest amount of plutonium exists in middle parts of sediments and comes from the global atmospheric fallout from nuclear tests in 1958–1961. According to all analysed fractions, the biggest amount of ^239+240Pu was in the mobile form, connected to carbonate fractions from the Vistula River estuary, the Gulf of Gdańsk and the Bornholm Deep sediments.

Keywords:

• Chernobyl fallout
• ecosystem
• fractionation
• plutonium-238
• plutonium-239
• plutonium-240
• radioactive nuclides
• sediments
• speciation
• southern Baltic Sea

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education for the financial support of this work under grant: DS/8120-4-0176-2.

Notes

†Contribution to the NUTECH-2011 International Conference, Krakow, Poland, 11–14 September 2011.