Abstract
In order to investigate the sedimentary behaviour of neptunium,237Np together with Pu isotopes and241Am have been measured for the sediment cores collected from Lake Mikata (freshwater) and from Lake Kugushi (brakish water) both belonging to the Mikata Five Lakes, and from Nyu Bay (sea water). In all sediment core samples237Np was detected, and its concentrations were far below those of239,240Pu and241Am measured for the same samples. Inventories of237Np in Lake Mikata, Lake Kugushi and Nyu Bay were estimated to be 0.53, 0.29 and 0.34 MBq/km2, respectively. The activity ratio of237Np/239,240Pu calculted from the inventories in each sediment core was 0.29% for Lake Mikata, 0.15% for Lake Kugushi and 0.10% for Nyu Bay. These values except for the value for Lake Mikata are two or three times lower than the value of 0.3–0.4% observed for surface soils of 0–20 cm depth, suggesting that Np is more soluble compared with Pu.
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Yamamoto, M., Yamauchi, Y., Chatani, K. et al. Distribution of global fallout237Np, Pu isotopes, and241Am in lake and sea sediments. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Articles 147, 165–176 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02039578
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02039578