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Distribution and Characterization of Plutonium in Soils from Nevada Test Site
Author(s) -
Tamura Tsuneo
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1975.00472425000400030014x
Subject(s) - plutonium , silt , leaching (pedology) , chemistry , soil water , radiochemistry , fraction (chemistry) , soil test , particle size , extraction (chemistry) , particle size distribution , environmental chemistry , environmental science , soil science , geology , chromatography , paleontology
Three surface soil samples, contaminated with plutonium by high explosive detonations of subcritical atomic devices at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), were analyzed for total plutonium content, plutonium distribution in different particle sizes, and leachability by HNO 3 . Total plutonium averaged about 2,640 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram of soil. The highest concentration of plutonium in two samples taken from the same area was in the very fine sand (125‐53 µ m) fraction (38 and 47%); the third sample from another test area contained the highest concentration in the coarse silt (53‐20 µ m) fraction (47%). Leaching with 8 M HNO 3 revealed that the extracted plutonium was related to the amount of plutonium associated with the finer sizes of soil particles. The highest extraction of 91% was associated with the sample containing 99% of the plutonium in particles < 125 µ m; the lowest extraction (65%) with the lowest amount (55%) in the same size fractions. Density gradient separation of a silt and a clay fraction revealed that the plutonium in the silt size was associated with particles whose density was > 2.8 g/cm 3 ; in the clay size the plutonium was associated with particles < 2.2 g/cm 3 .