Reconstruction of uranium and plutonium isotopic signatures in sediment accumulated in the Mano Dam reservoir, Japan, before and after the Fukushima nuclear accident

Abstract

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A worldwide meta-analysis (1977–2020) of sediment core dating using fallout radionuclides including <sup>137</sup>Cs and <sup>210</sup>Pb<sub>xs</sub>

“…The first local 137 Cs source detected in Japan was attributed to the atomic bomb peak in 1945 in the Nagasaki area (Mahara and Kudo, 1995). The peak associated with the atmospheric nuclear tests in 1963 was then largely recorded across the entire Japanese peninsula (e.g., Lu and Matsumoto, 2009;Hosono et al, 2016) whereas the fallout associated with the Fukushima accident was mainly identified in the vicinity of the Fukushima NPP, in particular in lacustrine sediments of the Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures (Cao et al, 2017;Jaegler et al, 2019;Minoura et al, 2014), as well as in sediment samples collected along the Pacific coast off the Fukushima prefecture (e.g., Black and Buesseler, 2014) -(Fig. 4).…”

“…Sedimentary sequences have received a growing interest as a support for conducting climatic and environmental reconstructions covering the 20th century period, which has been highly impacted by socio-environmental changes (Syvitski et al, 2020). These natural archives provide a powerful and unique tool for reconstructing the trajectory, the magnitude and the resilience of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems facing major environmental changes, climate forcing or contamination pressures (Dearing and Jones, 2003;Jaegler et al, 2019;Sabatier et al, 2014). These recent paleo-reconstructions were carried out in various environments such as lakes, alluvial plains, lagoons, estuaries or even the open ocean.…”

Deciphering sources of U contamination using isotope ratio signatures in the Loire River sediments: Exploring the relevance of 233U/236U and stable Pb isotope ratios

“…The global inventory and the relative contribution of these sources in the environment is still to be understood and some works have been involved in this effort (Casacuberta et al, 2014;Sakaguchi et al, 2009) .The natural 236 U/ 238 U ratios in the pre-anthropogenic environment range from 10 -14 to 10 -10 , the typical value of the 236 U/ 238 U ratio for U-ores ranges between 10 -12 and 10 -10 (Steier et al, 2008;Wilcken et al, 2008). Areas influenced by anthropogenic 236 U display 236 U/ 238 U ratio values greater than 10 -9 : from 10 -6 to more than 10 -3 near the Chernobyl damaged NPP (Boulyga and Becker, 2001;Hotchkis et al, 2000;Mironov et al, 2002), from 10 -8 to 10 -6 near the Fukushima one (Jaegler et al, 2019;Sakaguchi et al, 2014;Shinonaga et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2019Yang et al, , 2016, from 10 -6 to 10 -5 in the sediments from the Irish Sea impacted by the Sellafield reprocessing plant (Hotchkis et al, 2000;Ketterer et al, 2003;Marsden et al, 2001;Srncik et al, 2011a) and about 10 -9 to 10 -6 in areas affected by the global fallout from past nuclear testing as is the case in the northern hemisphere (Quinto et al, 2013(Quinto et al, , 2009Sakaguchi et al, 2010Sakaguchi et al, , 2009Shao et al, 2019;Srncik et al, 2011b). Moreover, the 236 U/ 238 U isotopic ratio was widely used to trace water masses in oceans (Casacuberta et al, 2014;Christl et al, 2015;Sakaguchi et al, 2012).…”

A worldwide meta-analysis (1977–2020) of sediment core dating using fallout radionuclides including <sup>137</sup>Cs and <sup>210</sup>Pb<sub>xs</sub>

“…The peak associated with the atmospheric nuclear tests in 1963 was then largely recorded across the entire Japanese peninsula (e.g. Hosono et al, 2016) whereas the fallout associated with the Fukushima accident was mainly identified in the vicinity of the Fukushima 340 NPP, in particular in lacustrine sediments of the Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures (Cao et al, 2017; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-168 Jaegler et al, 2019;Minoura et al, 2014), as well as in sediment samples collected along the Pacific coast off the Fukushima prefecture (e.g. Black & Buesseler, 2014) -(Fig.…”