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VERA, the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator, is especially equipped for the measurement of actinides, and performs a growing number of measurements on environmental samples. While AMS is not the optimum method for each particular plutonium isotope, the possibility to measure 239Pu, 240Pu, 241Pu, 242Pu and 244Pu on the same AMS sputter target is a great simplification. We have obtained a first result on the global fallout value of 244Pu/239Pu = (5.7 ± 1.0) × 10−5 based on soil samples from Salzburg prefecture, Austria. Furthermore, we suggest using the 242Pu/240Pu ratio as an estimate of the initial 241Pu/239Pu ratio, which allows dating of the time of irradiation based solely on Pu isotopes. We have checked the validity of this estimate using literature data, simulations, and environmental samples from soil from the Salzburg prefecture (Austria), from the shut down Garigliano Nuclear Power Plant (Sessa Aurunca, Italy) and from the Irish Sea near the Sellafield nuclear facility. The maximum deviation of the estimated dates from the expected ages is 6 years, while relative dating of material from the same source seems to be possible with a precision of less than 2 years. Additional information carried by the minor plutonium isotopes may allow further improvements of the precision of the method.

The isotopic composition of plutonium ((239)Pu, (240)Pu, (241)Pu and (242)Pu) was investigated in a ∼0.5 m long peat core from an ombrotrophic bog (Black Forest, Germany) using clean room procedures and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). This sophisticated analytical approach was ultimately needed to detect reliably the Pu concentrations present in the peat samples at femtogram (fg) and attogram (ag) levels. The mean (240)Pu/(239)Pu isotopic ratio of 0.19 ± 0.02 (N = 32) in the peat layers, representing approximately the last 80 years, was in good agreement with the accepted value of 0.18 for the global fallout in the Northern Hemisphere. This finding is largely supported by the corresponding and rather constant (241)Pu/(239)Pu (0.0012 ± 0.0005) and (242)Pu/(239)Pu (0.004 ± 0.001) ratios. Since the Pu isotopic composition characteristic of the global fallout was also identified in peat samples pre-dating the period of atmospheric atom bomb testing (AD 1956-AD 1980), migration of Pu within the peat profile is clearly indicated. These results highlight, for the first time, the mobility of Pu in a peat bog with implications for the migration of Pu in other acidic, organic rich environments such as forest soils and other wetland types. These findings constitute a direct observation of the behaviour of Pu at fg and ag levels in the environment. The AMS measurements of Pu concentrations (referring to a corresponding activity of (240+239)Pu from 0.07 mBq g(-1) to 5 mBq g(-1)) essentially confirm our a priori estimates based on existing (241)Am and (137)Cs data in the investigated peat core and agree well with the global fallout levels from the literature. Exclusively employing the Pu isotope ratios established for the peat samples, the date of the Pu irradiation (AD 1956, correctable to AD 1964) was calculated and subsequently compared to the (210)Pb age of the peat layers; this comparison provided an additional hint that global fallout derived Pu is not fixed in the peat column, but has migrated downwards along the peat profile to layers preceding the nuclear age.

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