Isotopic composition of plutonium in the bottom deposits of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea and identification of the sources of contaminationhearder

Abstract

The results of measurements of the isotopic atomic ratios238Pu/239Pu,240Pu/239Pu,241Pu/239Pu,242Pu/239Pu in samples of bottom deposits are presented. The role of the main sources of plutonium contamination of the region is examined. It is shown that the contribution of the α activity of industrial plutonium (238–240Pu) in bottom sediments from the European reprocessing plants, mainly, Sellafield (Great Britain), on the background due to global fallouts is 20 to 55% of the total α activity and 70–95% for the β activity (241Pu). No escape of reactor and weapons plutonium from the nuclear powered submarine “Komsomolets” into the environment was observed. The lower limit of sensitivity of the method is 10−14g of plutonium in a sample, which corresponds to a plutonium α activity of 0.02 mBq in a 10 g sample of bottom deposits, 4 tables, 26 references.