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Isotopic Composition and Distribution of Plutonium in Northern South China Sea Sediments Revealed Continuous Release and Transport of Pu from the Marshall Islands

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† State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, P. R. China
‡ Research Center of Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan
§ Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 1-55, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
*Phone: 0081-43-206-4634. Fax: 0081-43-255-0721. E-mail: [email protected] (J.Z.).
*Phone: 0086-592-2182132. Fax: 0086-592-2184101. E-mail: [email protected] (M.D.).
Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2014, 48, 6, 3136–3144
Publication Date (Web):February 24, 2014
https://doi.org/10.1021/es405363q
Copyright © 2014 American Chemical Society
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Abstract

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The 239+240Pu activities and 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios in sediments of the northern South China Sea and its adjacent Pearl River Estuary were determined to examine the spatial and temporal variations of Pu inputs. We clarified that Pu in the study area is sourced from a combination of global fallout and close-in fallout from the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands where above-ground nuclear weapons testing was carried out during the period of 1952–1958. The latter source dominated the Pu input in the 1950s, as evidenced by elevated 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios (>0.30) in a dated sediment core. Even after the 1950s, the Pacific Proving Grounds was still a dominant Pu source due to continuous transport of remobilized Pu from the Marshall Islands, about 4500 km away, along the North Equatorial Current followed by the transport of the Kuroshio current and its extension into the South China Sea through the Luzon Strait. Using a simple two end-member mixing model, we have quantified the contributions of Pu from the Pacific Proving Grounds to the northern South China Sea shelf and the Pearl River Estuary are 68% ± 1% and 30% ± 5%, respectively. This study also confirmed that there were no clear signals of Pu from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident impacting the South China Sea.

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The sedimentary process in the northern SCS shelf and four tables (Tables S1–S4). This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

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This article is cited by 38 publications.

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