Global Analysis of the Riverine Transport of 90Sr and 137Cs

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Jim T. Smith ; Simon M. Wright ; Matthew A. Cross ; Luigi Monte ; Anatoly V. Kudelsky ; Ritva Sax&eacute ; n ; Sergei M. Vakulovsky ; and David N. Timms
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2004
• 出版时间：February 1, 2004
• 年：2004
• 卷：38
• 期：3
• 页码：850 - 857
• 全文大小：213K
• 年卷期：v.38,no.3(February 1, 2004)
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

Atmospheric nuclear weapons explosions and large-scalenuclear accidents may contaminate large areas of landwith the long-lived radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr. The mobilityand bioavailability of these radionuclides in the environmentis dependent primarily on soil characteristics and changessignificantly over time after fallout (1-4). Radioisotopeconcentrations in different rivers and at different times afterfallout vary over 2-3 orders of magnitude. Many previousstudies have concentrated on the interactions ofradiocesium and radiostrontium with various environmentalcomponents, but there are currently no operative modelsfor their transport over large spatial areas. We collected time-series measurements of ⁹⁰Sr and ¹³⁷Cs in 25 majorEuropean and Asian rivers and (using digital data setswith global coverage) determined characteristics of eachof the rivers' catchments. This work has established,for the first time, a quantitative link between riverinetransport of these radioisotopes and catchment and soilcharacteristics at a global scale. A generalized predictivemodel accounting for time changes in river concentrationsand variation in catchment characteristics is developed. Thiscan be used to predict the long-term riverine transportof these radiologically important radionuclides following anylarge-scale nuclear incident in North America, Europe,or (European and Asian) Russia.