Abstract
Artificial radionuclides introduced to the atmosphere as a consequence of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests have been detected in deep sediments of the Atlantic1 and Pacific2 Oceans and of the Mediterranean Sea3. The nuclides which have been found in these sediments have half lives long enough to be detectable 10 or more years after their introduction to the ocean and biogeochemistries which permit particle association and transport. They include such nuclides as 239,240Pu, 238Pu, 241Am, 55Fe and 137Cs (refs 1–5). For fallout nuclides to have been transported to the deep ocean in the two to three decades since they were delivered to the sea surface, relatively rapid transport through the water column is required. We describe here the results of radiochemical analyses of Pu and other fallout nuclides in three series of sediment trap samples collected as part of the PARFLUX program6–8. The data are used to consider the role that large particles have in processes which transfer particle reactive artificial radionuclides through oceanic water columns.
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Livingston, H., Anderson, R. Large particle transport of plutonium and other fallout radionuclides to the deep ocean. Nature 303, 228–231 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/303228a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/303228a0
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