Plutonium released by the Nagasaki A-bomb: Mobility in the environment

Mahara, Yasunori; Kudō, Akira

doi:10.1016/0969-8043(95)00161-6

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It rather suggests complexing by humic acid as the only reason of plutonium presence. This results strongly supports some earlier results by other authors [8][9][10][11] on the possibility of a humic acid complexation of plutonium, (but not the fulvic acid complexation) which then might be sometimes (in basic conditions) far more mobile in the environment then it was classically assumed. In Fig.…”

Section: Results and Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Then, after many years of a decomposition (corrosion) in environmental conditions radionuclides from HPs might be leached out and might go to different chemical forms. Pu, Am or Cm could be bio-available or more general speaking leachable mostly if they are complexed by humic or fulvic acids [8][9][10][11]. To prove this feature present experiment was performed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Radionuclides from Chernobyl hot particles in the environment of North-Eastern Poland - A leaching experiment

Mietelski

2002

Radioprotection

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Results and Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radionuclides from Chernobyl hot particles in the environment of North-Eastern Poland - A leaching experiment

Mietelski

2002

Radioprotection

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Typically, it is assumed that Pu will not migrate as a soluble species. Surprisingly, Mahara and Kudo (1995) found Pu present in groundwater, in pre-1945 sediments and in pre-1945 tree rings, all of which may imply soluble mobility. They estimated about 1% of the Pu in each medium was substantially more mobile than expected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emphasis will be on mobility in soil, transfer to plants and terrestrial animals, and effects on soil biota. Mahara and Kudo (1995) provide an example of how, with long time periods, metals can show unexpected behaviour, or behaviour that is typically ignored. They investigated the fate of plutonium (Pu) around Nagasaki 45 yr after the nuclear bomb detonation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of long-term fate of metals in soils: Inferences from analogues

Sheppard¹

2005

Can. J. Soil. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sheppard, S. C. 2005. Assessment of long-term fate of metals in soils: Inferences from analogues. Can. J. Soil Sci. 85: 1-18. The assessment of the health and environmental impacts of metal contamination in soils is complicated, and in different ways than is the assessment of many other contaminants. One of the foremost problems is that the metals are often relatively immobile, so that it is necessary to verify predictions of mobility and impact far into the future. One approach is to seek analogue information: information from studies that may not have set out to measure attributes related to metal behaviour, but that none the less provide useful insights. One example would be the information on the mobility of natural clays and pedogenic metals such as iron and aluminum in soils. It is well accepted that clay particles will move downward in soils; what is less commonly inferred is that any contaminants associated with the clays will also move downward. For mobility of some metals, this may be a dominant process. Similarly, bioturbation has proven to markedly outpace leaching for many metals. This paper considers analogues related to cesium from bomb-fallout and Chernobyl, other natural radionuclide inputs to the soil, soil pedogenesis, pollen and non-metal industrialage inputs, ancient metal works, and soil fertility management. Related to biological transfers and toxicity, it considers analogy among elements and among biota, and analogy to ecotoxicology of metals to freshwater biota. Where possible, limiting values for parameters of assessment models have been derived. Key words:Terrestrial, leaching, mobility, ecotoxicity, assessment Sheppard, S. C. 2005. Évaluation du sort à long terme des métaux dans le sol : inférences à partir des analogues. Can. J. Soil Sci. 85: 1-18. Évaluer l'incidence des métaux qui contaminent le sol sur la santé et l'environnement n'est pas une tâche facile et les difficultés diffèrent de celles soulevées par l'évaluation de nombreux autres polluants. Un des principaux problèmes a trait à l'immobilité relative des métaux. On doit donc vérifier si les prévisions concernant leur déplacement et leurs incidences se véri-fient très loin dans l'avenir. Une façon d'y parvenir consiste à recueillir des données sur les analogues, bref l'information issue d'études dont l'objet principal n'était pas de quantifier les particularités du comportement des métaux, mais qui nous renseignent néanmoins sur le sujet. Les données sur la mobilité des argiles naturelles et des métaux pédogènes tels le fer et l'aluminium dans le sol en sont un exemple. On sait pertinemment que les particules d'argile s'enfoncent dans le sol, mais on songe moins souvent que les substances contaminant l'argile en font autant. Il pourrait cependant s'agir d'un processus dominant pour la mobilité de quelques métaux. Pareillement, on a prouvé que la bioturbation revêt plus d'importance que la lixiviation pour maints métaux. Dans cet article, l'auteur examine les analogues du césium venant des retombées radioactives de l'incide...

show abstract

“…A recent publication of the Mineralogical Society of America included a series of review articles describing the mineralogy and paragenesis of uranium deposits and the environmental geochemistry of uranium and its decay products (Burns and Finch, 1999). Mahara and Kudo (1995) and Kudo et al (1995) review the environmental behavior of plutonium released by the Nagasaki atomic bomb blast. A recent summary of the extent of contamination from atmospheric nuclear testing is found in Beck and Bennett (2002).…”

Section: Previous Reviews and Report Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Geochemistry of Radioactive Contamination

Siegel

Bryan

2003

Treatise on Geochemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This report attempts to describe the geochemical foundations of the behavior of radionuclides in the environment. The information is obtained and applied in three interacting spheres of inquiry and analysis: 1) experimental studies and theoretical calculations, 2) field studies of contaminated and natural analog sites and 3) model predictions of radionuclide behavior in remediation and waste disposal. Analyses of the risks from radioactive contamination require estimation of the rates of release and dispersion of the radionuclides through potential exposure pathways. These processes are controlled by solubility, speciation, sorption, and colloidal transport, which are strong functions of the compositions of the groundwater and geomedia as well as the atomic structure of the radionuclides.The chemistry of the fission products is relatively simple compared to the actinides. Because of their relatively short half-lives, fission products account for a large fraction of the radioactivity in nuclear waste for the first several hundred years but do not represent a long-term hazard in the environment. The chemistry of the longer-lived actinides is complex; however, some trends in their behavior can be described. Actinide elements of a given oxidation state have either similar or systematically varying chemical properties due to similarities in ionic size, coordination number, valence, and electron structure. In dilute aqueous systems at neutral to basic pH, the dominant actinide species are hydroxy-and carbonato-complexes, and the solubility-limiting solid phases are commonly oxides, hydroxides or carbonates. In general, actinide sorption will decrease in the presence of ligands that complex with the radionuclide; sorption of the (IV) species of actinides (Np, Pu, U) is generally greater than of the (V) species.The geochemistry of key radionuclides in three different environments is described in this report. These include: 1) low ionic strength reducing waters from crystalline rocks at nuclear waste research 4 sites in Sweden; 2) oxic water from the J-13 well at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, the site of a proposed repository for high level nuclear waste (HLW) in tuffaceous rocks; and 3) reference brines associated with the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The transport behaviors of radionuclides associated with the Chernobyl reactor accident and the Oklo Natural Reactor are described. These examples span wide temporal and spatial scales and include the rapid geochemical and physical processes important to nuclear reactor accidents or industrial discharges as well as the slower processes important to the geologic disposal of nuclear waste.Application of geochemical information to remediating or assessing the risk posed by radioactive contamination is the final subject of this report. After radioactive source terms have been removed, large volumes of soil and water with low but potentially hazardous levels of contamination may remain. For poorly-sorbing radionuclides, capture of contaminated water and removal of radi...

show abstract

Plutonium released by the Nagasaki A-bomb: Mobility in the environment

Cited by 34 publications

References 31 publications

Radionuclides from Chernobyl hot particles in the environment of North-Eastern Poland - A leaching experiment

Radionuclides from Chernobyl hot particles in the environment of North-Eastern Poland - A leaching experiment

Assessment of long-term fate of metals in soils: Inferences from analogues

Environmental Geochemistry of Radioactive Contamination

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About