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Plutonium is known to bind to soil particles very strongly (see above for an X-ray spectroscopic study of plutonium in soil and concrete). While caesium has very different chemistry to the actinides, it is well known that both caesium and many of the actinides bind strongly to the minerals in soil.
Plutonium milling operations produced large quantities of toxic cutting fluid contaminated with particles of plutonium and uranium. Thousands of 55-gallon drums of the waste were stored outside in an unprotected earthen area called the 903 pad storage area, [21]: 28 where they corroded and leaked radionuclides over years into the soil and water.
Rocky Flats was established next to Walnut and Woman creek. Until the construction of a waste treatment facility in 1957, plutonium contaminated wastewater was discharged directly into Walnut creek which followed to Broomfield's drinking water supply. In 1953, a retention pond was built along Walnut creek which accumulated plutonium in its soil.
Jay Coghlan, director of Nuclear Watch, said plutonium contamination in the heart of Los Alamos is a concern, particularly as the lab — under the direction of Congress, the Energy Department and ...
A Northern Arizona University professor emeritus who analyzed soil, water and vegetation samples taken along a popular hiking and biking trail in Acid Canyon said Thursday that there were more extreme concentrations of plutonium found there than at other publicly accessible sites he has researched in his decades-long career.
Apr. 25—Trace amounts of plutonium from decades of weapons work at Los Alamos National Laboratory have contaminated the Rio Grande at least as far as Cochiti Lake and could be in the regional ...
TEPCO have reported at three sites 500 meters from the reactors that the caesium-134 and caesium-137 levels in the soil are between 7.1 kBq and 530 kBq per kilo of undried soil. [156] Small traces of plutonium have been found in the soil near the stricken reactors: repeated examinations of the soil suggest that the plutonium level is similar to ...
The distribution coefficient K d is the ratio of the soil's radioactivity (Bq g −1) to that of the soil water (Bq ml −1). If the radioactivity is tightly bonded to by the minerals in the soil then less radioactivity can be absorbed by crops and grass growing in the soil. Cs-137 K d = 1000; Pu-239 K d = 10000 to 100000; Sr-90 K d = 80 to 150 ...