Plutonium, 137Cs and uranium isotopes in Mongolian surface soils

Publication date: January 2017
Source:Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, Volume 166, Part 1
Author(s): K. Hirose, Y. Kikawada, Y. Igarashi, H. Fujiwara, D. Jugder, Y. Matsumoto, T. Oi, M. Nomura
Plutonium (²³⁸Pu and ^239,240Pu), ¹³⁷Cs and plutonium activity ratios (²³⁸Pu/^239,240Pu) as did uranium isotope ratio (²³⁵U/²³⁸U) were measured in surface soil samples collected in southeast Mongolia. The ^239,240Pu and ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in Mongolian surface soils (<53 μm of particle size) ranged from 0.42 ± 0.03 to 3.53 ± 0.09 mBq g⁻¹ and from 11.6 ± 0.7 to 102 ± 1 mBq g⁻¹, respectively. The ²³⁸Pu/^239,240Pu activity ratios in the surface soils (0.013–0.06) coincided with that of global fallout. The ²³⁵U/²³⁸U atom ratios in the surface soil show the natural one. There was a good correlation between the ^239,240Pu and ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in the surface soils. We introduce the migration depth to have better understanding of migration behaviors of anthropogenic radionuclides in surface soil. We found a difference of the migration behavior between ^239,240Pu and ¹³⁷Cs from ¹³⁷Cs/^239,240Pu – ¹³⁷Cs plots for the Mongolian and Tsukuba surface soils; plutonium in surface soil is migrated easier than ¹³⁷Cs.



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