Pu and 137Cs in the Yangtze River Estuary Sediments: Distribution and Source Identification

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• 作者：Zhiyong Liu ; Jian Zheng ; Shaoming Pan ; Wei Dong ; Masatoshi Yamada ; Tatsuo Aono ; Qiuju Guo
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：March 1, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：45
• 期：5
• 页码：1805-1811
• 全文大小：894K
• 年卷期：v.45,no.5(March 1, 2011)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Pu isotopes and ¹³⁷Cs were analyzed using sector field ICP-MS and 纬 spectrometry, respectively, in surface sediment and core sediment samples from the Yangtze River estuary. ^239+240Pu activity and ²⁴⁰Pu/²³⁹Pu atom ratios (>0.18) shows a generally increasing trend from land to sea and from north to south in the estuary. This spatial distribution pattern indicates that the Pacific Proving Grounds (PPG) source Pu transported by ocean currents was intensively scavenged into the suspended sediment under favorable conditions, and mixed with riverine sediment as the water circulated in the estuary. This process is the main control for the distribution of Pu in the estuary. Moreover, Pu is also an important indicator for monitoring the changes of environmental radioactivity in the estuary as the river basin is currently the site of extensive human activities and the sea level is rising because of global climate changes. For core sediment samples the maximum peak of ^239+240Pu activity was observed at a depth of 172 cm. The sedimentation rate was estimated on the basis of the Pu maximum deposition peak in 1963鈭?964 to be 4.1 cm/a. The contributions of the PPG close-in fallout Pu (44%) and the riverine Pu (45%) in Yangtze River estuary sediments are equally important for the total Pu deposition in the estuary, which challenges the current hypothesis that the riverine Pu input was the major source of Pu budget in this area.