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Vertical and horizontal fluxes of plutonium and americium in the western Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar

TitleVertical and horizontal fluxes of plutonium and americium in the western Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication1999
AuthorsVintró, L.L., Mitchell P.I., Condren O.M., Downes A.B., Papucci C., and Delfanti Roberta
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume237-238
Pagination77-91
ISSN00489697
KeywordsAmericium, conference paper, Gibraltar, Marine pollution, Mediterranean Sea, Plutonium, pollutant transport, pollution transport, priority journal, radiation monitoring, Radioactive, radioactive contamination, Radioactive Fallout, radioactive waste, sea pollution, Seawater, sediment, Strait of Gibraltar, Time Factors, Water pollution, water sampling
Abstract

New data on the vertical distributions of plutonium and americium in the waters of the western Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar are examined in terms of the processes governing their delivery to, transport in and removal from the water column within the basin. Residence times for plutonium and americium in surface waters of 15 and 3 years, respectively, are deduced, and it is shown that by the mid 1990s only 35% of the 239,240Pu and 5% of the 241Am deposited as weapons fallout still resided in the water column. Present 239,240Pu inventories in the water column and the underlying sediments are estimated to be 25 TBq and 40 TBq, respectively, which reconcile well with the time-integrated fallout deposition in this zone, taken to be 69 TBq. The data show that there are significant net outward fluxes of plutonium and americium from the basin through the Strait of Gibraltar at the present time. These appear to be compensated by net inward fluxes of similar magnitude through the Strait of Sicily. Thus, the time-integrated fallout deposition in the western basin can be accounted for satisfactorily in terms of present water column and sediment inventories. Enhanced scavenging on the continental shelves, as evidenced by the appreciably higher transuranic concentrations in shelf sediments, supports this contention.

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URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0032837405&doi=10.1016%2fS0048-9697%2899%2900126-6&partnerID=40&md5=3d874b347904392c751816d900b156db
DOI10.1016/S0048-9697(99)00126-6
Citation KeyVintró199977