Iodine-129 in Seawater Offshore Fukushima: Distribution, Inorganic Speciation, Sources, and Budget

Autor(en)

Xiaolin Hou, Pavel P. Povinec, Luyuan Zhang, Keliang Shi, Dana Biddulph, Ching-Chih Chang, Yukun Fan, Robin Golser, Yingkun Hou, Miroslav Jeskovsky, A. J. Tim Jull, Qi Liu, Maoyi Luo, Peter Steier, Weijian Zhou

Abstrakt

The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 has released a large amount

of radioactive pollutants to the environment. Of the pollutants,

iodine-129 is a long-lived radionuclide and will remain in the

environment for millions of years. This work first report levels and

inorganic speciation of ¹²⁹I in seawater depth profiles collected offshore Fukushima in June 2011. Significantly elevated ¹²⁹I concentrations in surface water were observed with the highest ¹²⁹I/¹²⁷I atomic ratio of 2.2 × 10^–9 in the surface seawater 40 km offshore Fukushima. Iodide was found as the dominant species of ¹²⁹I, while stable ¹²⁷I was mainly in iodate form, reflecting the fact that the major source of ¹²⁹I is the direct liquid discharges from the Fukushima NPP. The amount of ¹²⁹I

directly discharged from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to

the sea was estimated to be 2.35 GBq, and about 1.09 GBq of ¹²⁹I

released to the atmosphere from the accident was deposited in the sea

offshore Fukushima. A total release of 8.06 GBq (or 1.2 kg) of ¹²⁹I from the Fukushima accident was estimated. These Fukushima-derived ¹²⁹I

data provide necessary information for the investigation of water

circulation and geochemical cycle of iodine in the northwestern Pacific

Ocean in the future.

Organisation(en)

Isotopenphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, University of Arizona, Imperial College London, Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU)

Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

Band

47

Seiten

3091-3098

Anzahl der Seiten

8

ISSN

0013-936X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1021/es304460k

Publikationsdatum

04-2013

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1030 Physik, Astronomie, 103031 Strahlenschutz, 103005 Atomphysik

Schlagwörter

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/2465b802-c7b6-4d31-8021-e122088146fe