Plutonium isotopes in seas around the Korean Peninsula
239+240Pu concentrations and 240Pu/ 239Pu atom ratios in coastal seas adjacent to the Korean Peninsula were determined, during the period 1999 to 2002, to assess the current distribution and to identify sources of Pu isotopes. 239+240Pu concentrations in surface waters ranged from 3.1 to 22.3 mBq m...
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Published in | The Science of the total environment Vol. 318; no. 1; pp. 197 - 209 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Shannon
Elsevier B.V
05.01.2004
Elsevier Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | 239+240Pu concentrations and
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratios in coastal seas adjacent to the Korean Peninsula were determined, during the period 1999 to 2002, to assess the current distribution and to identify sources of Pu isotopes.
239+240Pu concentrations in surface waters ranged from 3.1 to 22.3 mBq m
−3 with higher concentrations in winter than in summer.
239+240Pu concentrations in seawaters around the Korean Peninsula are greater than that in the western North Pacific.
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratios ranged from 0.18 to 0.33 with an average value of 0.25±0.03, which is significantly higher than the global fallout average. The
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratios of the 2000 m deep entire water column in the south western part of the East Sea (Sea of Japan) was comparable to that observed in waters near Bikini Atoll. The higher
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratios than that of global fallout may be explained by the hypothesis that the earlier input signal of low
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratio (0.18–0.19) of global fallout plutonium in seas adjacent to the Korean Peninsula is being gradually diluted by the high
240Pu/
239Pu atom ratio plutonium transported from the tropical Pacific Proving Grounds via prevailing ocean current. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0048-9697 1879-1026 |
DOI: | 10.1016/S0048-9697(03)00399-1 |