All data are peak values unless noted as mean or median values.
 

DATE

LOCATION

MEDIA

NUCLIDE

ACTIVITY

Romney, E.M., Mork, and Larson, K.H. (1970). Persistence of plutonium in soil, plants and small mammals. Health Physics. 19. pg. 487-491.
 

1955-66	Nevada Test Site	Soil	239Pu	208,333.00 Bq/kg
1955-66	Nevada Test Site	Clover	239Pu	375 Bq/kg
1955-66	Nevada Test Site	Jackrabbit Bone	239Pu	11,900 Bq/kg

• Reflects extensive contamination from local nuclear weapons tests.

• A classic in radiological surveillance of the abiotic environment.

Noshkin, V.E. (1972). Ecological aspects of plutonium dissemination in aquatic environments. Health Physics. 22. pg. 537-549.
 

1970

Cape Cod Bay

Sediment

239Pu

3 samples: range 20-60 pCi/kg

Hardy, E.P., Krey, P.W. and Volchok, H.L. (February 16, 1973). Global inventory and distribution of fallout plutonium. Nature. 241. pg. 444-445.

• This is a landmark document in the literature of radiological surveillance and is not only one of the first summaries of weapons testing ²³⁹Pu fallout (world wide inventory: 325 +/- 36 kCi as of January 1971, pg. 445) but also includes the inventory of ²³⁸Pu dispersed by the April 21, 1964 SNAP-9A navigational satellite failure which released 17,000 curies of radioactivity into the biosphere over the Southern Indian Ocean.
• For more information on this satellite accident, consult RADNET Section 11, Part 9, Nuclear Powered Satellite Accidents.
• A relatively uniform pattern of fallout plutonium distribution characterizes soil deposition inventories of ²³⁹Pu; the highest accumulations are located in the northern hemisphere in the latitudinal band of 50 to 40 degrees, with an average deposition of 2.2 mCi per km², dropping off to .10+ mCi per km in the arctic regions (90-80 degrees) and .13 to .24 in the tropical regions of the northern hemisphere. Fallout deposition levels in the southern atmosphere are approximately an order of magnitude less.
• Hardy et. al.'s data thus indicate that 5.2 metric tons of plutonium 239/240 have been globally distributed between the beginning of weapons testing and January 1970.
• We have scanned part of this article and posted in on the web in our special appendix on Plutonium fallout.

• ²³⁸Pu emissions are frequently associated with reprocessing spent fuel.

Bennet, B.G. (1976). Fallout in ^239,240Pu in Diet. (Report No. HASL-306). Washington, D.C.
 

1972-74	New York City	Shellfish	239Pu	0.012 pCi/kg
1972-74	New York City	Milk	239Pu	0.00051 pCi/kg

• Mean concentrations in annual dietary intake. Most other food products had a range of mean concentrations from 0.001 to 0.01 pCi/kg.
• Uptake of ingested plutonium from the gastro-intestinal tract is estimated at 3x10^-5 to 3x10^-6 as a percent of ingested plutonium. This illustrates that plutonium oxide is not readily absorbed when ingested in this chemical form.

• The cumulative deposit of fallout of ^239,240Pu, which was first measured in 1954 at 0.07 mCi/km² had reached 2.68 mCi/km², by 1968.

Livingston, H.D. and Bowen, V.T. (1976). Americium in the marine environment: Relationships to plutonium. Environmental toxicity of aquatic radionuclides: models and mechanisms. Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

• All production of ²⁴¹Am comes solely from decay of its parent, ²⁴¹Pu.
• Up until this time, most ²⁴¹Pu came from the 1961-62 U.S. and U.S.S.R. tests.
• Both plutonium and americium are rapidly transferred from the water to the sediment with near-shore sediment inventories showing some transfer to deep water sediments.

• Extensive data on air concentrations and ground deposition of ²⁴¹Am from 1950-1984 as well as its comparison with plutonium deposition levels.
• The majority of ²⁴¹Am contamination in the environment derives from its growth out of the decay of ²⁴¹Pu. Table 4, page 58 indicates that 4,500,000 curies of ²⁴¹Pu were produced by weapons tests through 1978 and will decay into 150,000 curies of ²⁴¹Am.
• Table 7 on page 67 provides a cumulative deposition record for both plutonium and americium. For the year 2000, cumulative deposition of ²⁴¹Am in the New York region is estimated at .80 mCi/km² (29.4 Bq/m²); the cumulative deposit of ^239,240Pu in the New York region reached 2.2 mCi/km² in 1979 and will remain at that level until about 2050 (81.6 Bq/m², slightly higher than levels recorded by Aarkrog and other researchers for mid-latitude locations).

Cutter, G.A., Bruland, K.W. and Risebrough, R.W. (1979). Deposition and accumulation of plutonium isotopes in Antarctica. Nature, 279, 628- 629.
 

Jan. 1977

Antarctica

Snow Meltwater

239Pu

5.62 d.p.m./100 l

Livingston, H.D. and Bowen, V.T. (1979). Pu and ¹³⁷Cs in coastal sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 543, 29-45.
 

1973

Buzzards Bay

Dry sediment

239Pu

160 d.p.m./kg

• The range of surface sediment fallout plutonium in eight Buzzards Bay samples was 117-160 d.p.m./kg, with plutonium concentrations falling off sharply below 10 cm in depth.

• ²⁴¹Am / ²³⁹Pu activity ratios are enriched in biogenic particulates by a factor of three (9:1) versus the activity ratio in surface seawater (3:1).

• The Pu inventories in the sediment are subject to resuspension and transfer back into the water column as well as extensive bioturbation and mixing with underlying sediments.

• "The measured inventories are greatly in excess of quantities supportable from atmospheric deposition alone; most of the excess... ^239,240Pu stored in sediments at these stations was introduced by lateral transport. Whether these inventories record mainly a terrigenous input or the focusing of atmospheric deposition over coastal water cannot be determined from these data." (p. 171).

• Reflects contamination from the Hanford, WA reservation which has been deposited on the Continental Shelf via the Columbia River. See Section 11 for more information on the Hanford Reservation plume source point.

• Peak value for both ²³⁸Pu and ¹³⁷Cs deposition was in 1978.

• Data comparison shows no significant differences in ^239,240Pu content for West Coast and East Coast mussels except central California coastal stations with had slightly elevated levels due to upwelling.

Jennings, C.D., Delfanti, R. and Papucci, C. (1985). The distributions and inventory of fallout plutonium in sediments of the Ligurian Sea near La Spezia, Italy. J. Environ. Radioactivity, 2, 293-310.

• "The Integrated inventory of ^239,240Pu in a sediment core is calculated to be 3-5 mCi km^-2, nearly twice the average input from fallout at these latitudes, apparently because Pu is removed from seawater by particle scavenging." p. 293

Livingston, H.D., Bowen, V.T., Casso, S.A., Volchok, H.L., Noshkin, V.E., Wong, K.M. and Beasley, T.M. (1985) Fallout nuclides in Atlantic and Pacific Water Columns: GEOSECS data (Woods Hole Oceanog. Inst. Tech. Rept. WHOI-85- 19). Woods Hole, MA: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
 

1972	North Atlantic	Ocean Water Column	239Pu	3.06 mCi/km2
1973	Pacific	Ocean Water Column	239Pu	4.04 mCi/km2

• A very detailed survey of plutonium deposition in ocean water.

Hallastadius, L, Aarkrog, A., Dahlgaard, H., Holm, E., Boelskifte, S., Duniec, S. and Persson, B. (1986). Plutonium and americium in Arctic waters, the North Sea and Scottish and Irish coastal zones. J. Environ. Radioactivity, 4, 11- 30.
 

1982	Irish Sea	Fucus vesiculosis	239Pu	270 Bq/kg near Sellafield
1982	Irish Sea	Fucus vesiculosis	239Pu	0.6 to 2.0 Bq/kg uncontaminated areas
1983	Irish Sea	Fucus vesiculosis	241Am	84 Bq/kg near Sellafield

• For further information on Sellafield as a source point of radioactive contamination, see RADNET, Section 11.

• "GSF has pointed out that the whole of Germany -- and, for that matter, most of the world -- is covered with some 50 becquerels per square meter (Bq/m²) of Pu-239 and Pu-242 from weapons tests.  When atmospheric tests ceased in 1980, there was an additional 300 Bq/m²  of Pu-241 in fallout, and even today this has decayed only to between 20 and 30 Bq/m²." (pg. 47).

Lobsenz, George. (May 26, 1999). Civilian plutonium stockpile growing. The Energy Daily.

• "Civilian stockpiles of plutonium worldwide increased 65 metric tons in 1998 to 1,115 metric tons-including an estimated 13 metric-ton rise in the amount of proliferation-sensitive separated plutonium, according to a new report."
• "At the end of 1998, there were 920 metric tons of plutonium in spent nuclear fuel, compared to 868 metric tons at the end of 1997, according to the ISIS [Institute for Science and International Security] report."
• "The report said separated plutonium stocks reached 195 metric tons at the end of 1998, compared to 182 metric tons at the end of 1997."
• "Most of the separated plutonium is in France and Britain, both of which have large state-backed commercial companies that reprocess spent reactor fuel to recover plutonium and then refabricate it into MOX fuel for re-use in civilian reactors.  Major customers have included Japanese, German and other European reactor operators."
• "In total, the civilian stockpile of 1,115 metric tons is nearly three times larger than the roughly 250 metric tons held by the military worldwide, ISIS said.  However, it said 90 percent of the military stockpile was in separated form."

All data are peak values unless noted as mean or median values.
 

DATE

LOCATION

MEDIA

NUCLIDE

ACTIVITY

Book, S.A., Garner, R.J., Soldat, J.K. and Bustad, L.K. (1977). Thyroidal burdens of ¹²⁹I from various dietary sources. Health Physics. 32. pg. 143-148.

• This study uses modeled ¹²⁹I intake rather than actual intake and is one of the first studies to explore the potential pathways of the very long-lived ¹²⁹I which will become an important source of exposure thousands of years in the future.

Simpson, R.E., Shuman, F.G.D., Baratta, E.J. and Tanner, J.T. (1981). Projected dose commitment from fallout contamination in milk resulting from the 1976 Chinese atmospheric nuclear weapons test. Health Physics. 40. pg. 741-744.
 

Oct. 1976

Amherst, MA

Milk

131I

1,150 pCi/l (42.2 Bq/l)

• Reflects a very strong pulse of radioiodine in the cattle-forage pathway after a particularly dirty Chinese test explosion.
• These contamination levels reached range III of the 1961 FRC protective action guidelines. See RADNET Section 6, for an extended discussion of radiation protection guidelines.
• For more comments including a scan of this article, see our special appendix: Contaminated milk: A paradigm.

• Between 1971-1985 this fuel reprocessing facility released about 7.3 x 10⁹ Bq of ¹²⁹I to the environment.
• This article contains the first detailed analysis of ¹²⁹I in food crops, which generally range in 10^-6 Bq/kg or lower. The peak value of ¹²⁹I concentration in leeks was noted as 1.1x10^-6 Bq/g; tobacco was anomalous at 15x10^-6 Bq/g.
• This volume begins an important series of reports on ¹²⁹I pathways.
• These are pre-Chernobyl peak concentrations.

• Most pre-Chernobyl ¹³¹I levels are recorded as below 10 pCi/l, which the EPA lists as their minimum detectable level for both radiocesium and radioiodine.

Libby, W.F. (1956). Radioactive Strontium Fallout. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 42. pg. 365-390.

Bowen, V.T., Sugihara, T.T. (1957). Strontium-90 in North Atlantic surface water. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., U.S. 43(7). pg. 576-580.

Noureddine, A. and Baggoura, B. (1997). Plutonium Isotopes, ¹³⁷Cs, ⁹⁰Sr and Natural Radioactivity in Marine Sediments from Ghazaouet (Algeria). Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. 34(2). pg. 127-138.

Toonkel, L.E. (1980). Environmental Measurements Laboratory: Environmental quarterly, July 1, 1980. EML-374, Appendix. U.S. Department of Energy, New York, NY.

• This publication provides a detailed record of air concentrations of certain weapons testing derived radionuclides including ⁵⁵I, ⁵⁴Mn, ⁹⁵Zr as well as ¹³⁷Cs, ^89,90Sr.
• ⁸⁹Sr concentrations are first monitored in 1963 with peak values reaching 2,210 femtocuries/m³ (2.21 picocuries/m³) at Sterling, VA in Feb. 1963, rapidly falling to 6.36 femtocuries/m³ in November 1963. ⁸⁹Sr monitoring was discontinued after July 1973 when concentrations fell below the lower level of detection which appears to be approximately .2 femtocuries/m³.
• ⁹⁰Sr concentrations also show a peak in April, 1963, in Miami at 132 femtocuries/m³ and are reported through 1979, by which time they have dropped to less than 1 femtocuries/m³ and are below the lower levels of detection after April, 1979. Many of the EML monitoring stations are located in the southern hemisphere and record uniformly lower fallout concentrations than stations in the northern hemisphere.

• One of the first appearances of ⁹⁹Tc in radiological surveillance reports is the data in these Riso publications. Of 103 samples of Fucus vesiculosus and Fucus serratous taken in Danish waters in 1988 and 1989, 30 samples showed ⁹⁹Tc contamination with a range from 6.3 Becquerels/kg dry up to 200 Becquerels/kg dry (pg. 151-153).
• These low-levels of contamination may serve as a reference point for higher levels of Sellafield derived technetium now being monitored in the Irish Sea by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.
• This citation was posted 1/9/97: additional information requested from the MAFF will be posted by RADNET in RAD 11: 7 as soon as it arrives.

• See annotations in RAD 10: Chernobyl Section 4: Denmark.

Collins, C. and Otlet, R. (1995). Carbon-14 levels in UK foodstuffs. MAFF Project B1408. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, London.

Cook, G.T., Begg, F.H., Naysmith, P., Scott, E.M. and McCartney, M. (October 1996). Anthropogenic ¹⁴C marine geochemistry in the vicinity of a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. Oceanographic Literature Review. 43(10). pg. 1060-1061.

Hisamatsu, S., Takzawa, Y. and Abe, T. (1987). Fallout ³H ingestion in Akita, Japan. Health Physics. 53(3). pg. 287-293.
 

1985

Akita, Japan

Daily dietary intake

3H

4.1 Bq/day

• Tissue bound tritium was 15% of the total, the same as reported for New York City, but lower than that reported for Italian diets.
• This is a typical pre-Chernobyl intake level for a relatively uncontaminated area.

Roland, R.F., Chmielewicz, Z.F., Weiner, B.A., Gross, A.M., Boening, O.P., Luck, J.V. and Bardos, T.J. (1960). Zinc-65 and Chromium-51 in foods and people. Science. 132(23). pg. 1895-1897.
 

1959-60	Columbia River, WA	Irrigated soil	51Cr	38.4 pCi/g (38,400 pCi/kg)
1959-60	Columbia River, WA	Irrigated alfalfa	65Zn	89 pCi/g (8,900 pCi/kg)
1959-60	Columbia River, WA	Irrigated pasture grass	65Zn	36 pCi/g (36,000 pCi/kg)
1959-60	Columbia River, WA	Milk	65Zn	1.9 pCi/g (1,900 pCi/kg)

• Reflects extensive contamination of the Columbia River by Hanford Reservation effluents. Also see Section 11.

Strand, P. (June 1995). Survey of artificial radionuclides in the Barents Sea and the Kara Sea. Oceanographic Literature Review. 42(6). pg. 500.

Valette-Silver, N.J. and Lauenstein, G.G. (May 1995). Radionuclide concentrations in bivalves collected along the coastal United States. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 30(5). pg. 320-331.
 

7. Naturally Occurring Radionuclides (NOR)

Baseline data pertaining to naturally occurring radionuclides (NOR) provide an important point of comparison for evaluating the significance of anthropogenic contamination from human activities such as weapons production and the generation of nuclear electricity.  In many cases naturally occurring radionuclides are redistributed by human activities (e.g. the mining, milling and processing of uranium) and therefore are a distinct classification of anthropogenic radioactivity.  Also see RAD 11:  Anthropogenic Radioactivity:  Major Plume Source Points for additional citations pertaining to the uranium contamination cycle including the use of uranium-tipped weapons in the Gulf War.

Camplin, W.C., Baxter, A.J. and Round, G.D. (1996). The radiological impact of disposals of natural radionuclides from a phosphate plant in the United Kingdom. Environ. Int. 22 Suppl. 1. pg. 5259-5270.

Hunt, G.J. and Allington, D.J. (1993). Absorption of environmental polonium-210 by the human gut. J. Radiol. Prot. 13(2). pg. 119-126.

Pentreath, R.J., Camplin, W.C. and Allington, D.J. (1989). Individual and collective dose rates from naturally-occurring radionuclides in seafood.  In: Radiation Protection Theory and Practice. Proc. 4th Int. Symp. Soc. Radiol. Prot. Malvern, 4-9 June 1989. Goldfinch, E.P. (Ed.), Institute of Physics, Bristol and New York. pg. 297-300.

Rollo, S.F.N., Camplin, W.C., Allington, D.J. and Young, A.K. (1992). Natural radionuclides in the UK marine environment. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Natural Radiation Environment, Saltzburg, September 22-28, 1991. Radiat. Prot. Dosim. 45(1/4). pg. 203-210.