Plutonium and Americium: Uptake from contaminated sediments by the polychaeteNereis diversicolor

✍ Scribed by T. M. Beasley; S. W. Fowler

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1976
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 576 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00390762

✦ Synopsis

The polychaete Nereis diversicolor O.F. M011er was exposed to marine sediments which had been contaminated with plutonium and americium either through the testing of nuclear devices or by the release of liquid waste effluent from a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. The uptake of both plutonium and americium was small, about 0.5% of the concentration of these transuranics in the sediments. The degree of relative uptake of plutonium from both sediments was comparable; relative uptake of americium from sediments contaminated by waste effluent was greater than that from nuclear test debris sediments. Applying the measured plutonium concentration factors from sediment and those previously determined from water-uptake experiments to environmentally determined plutonium concentrations in sediments and overlying waters leads,to the tentative conclusion that water may be the predominant pathway for plutonium accumulation by deposit-feeding worms like N. diversicolor.