Environmental Actinide Science

Abstract

Considerable progress has been made in the study of environmental plutonium science in the last 30-plus years, driven to a large extent by concerns about the release and migration of large amounts of plutonium into the accessible geosphere. Plutonium has been introduced into the environment through several pathways. Environmental contamination has been caused by nuclear-weapons production and testing, nuclear-reactor accidents, and accidents during the transport of nuclear weapons. Above-ground testing of more than 420 nuclear weapons has produced large amounts of radionuclides through fission and neutron activation products. More than three metric tons of plutonium have been distributed on the earth's surface by global fallout. For example, the MAYAK plutonium production complex in the former Soviet Union is located in the southern Urals, about 70 km north of Chelyabinsk and 15 km east of Kyshtym. Between 1949 and 1951, about 76 million m3 of liquid radioactive waste with a total activity of 100 PBq (2.7 MCi) were discharged into the Techa River.