Anthropogenic ²³⁶U in Danish Seawater

Autor(en)

Jixin Qiao, Peter Steier, Sven Nielsen, Xiaolin Hou, Per Roos, Robin Golser

Abstrakt

This work focuses on the occurrence of U-236 in seawater along Danish coasts, which is the sole water-exchange region between the North Sea-Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. Seawater collected in 2013 and 2014 were analyzed for U-236 (as well as U-238 and 137Cs). Our results indicate that U-236 concentrations in Danish seawater are distributed within a relatively narrow range of (3.6-8.2) X 10(7) atom/L and, to a certain extent, independent of salinity. U-236/U-238 atomic ratios in Danish seawater are more than 4 times higher than the estimated global fallout value of lx 10(-9). The levels of U-236/U-238 atomic ratios obtained are comparable to those reported for the open North Sea and much higher than several other open oceans worldwide. This indicates that besides the global fallout input, the discharges from the two major European nuclear reprocessing plants are dominating sources of U-236 in Danish seawater. However, unexpectedly high U-236/U-238 ratios as well as high U-236 concentrations were observed at low-salinity locations of the Baltic Sea. While this feature might be interpreted as a clue for another significant U-236 input in the Baltic Sea, it may also be caused by the complexity of water currents or slow turnover rate.

Organisation(en)

Isotopenphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

Band

51

Seiten

6867-6876

Anzahl der Seiten

10

ISSN

0013-936X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b00504

Publikationsdatum

06-2017

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103014 Kernphysik, 105904 Umweltforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Chemistry(all), Environmental Chemistry

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/anthropogenic-236u-in-danish-seawater(2640e155-1f4f-40a7-859c-14412150d567).html