BaselineConcentrations of selected radionuclides and their spatial distribution in marine sediments from the northwestern Gulf, Kuwait
Section snippets
Results and discussion
The concentrations of all the radionuclides in the marine sediments are shown in Table 3. 40K, 210Pb, 137Cs, 90Sr, 226Ra, 228Ra, 238U, 235U, 234U, 239 + 240Pu and 238Pu ranged between 386 and 489; 32.3–48.8; 1.5–2.9; 4.53–5.42; 18.3–23.1; 18.8–23.0; 22.3–30.5; 0.99–1.33; 25.6–34.8; 0.30–0.93; and 0.0008–0.00018 Bq kg− 1, respectively. The measurements made are compared with measurements made elsewhere (Table 4).
It is of interest to compare our recent baseline measurements with those made earlier at
Conclusions
Despite the region being subjected to three wars and massive oil fires, the baseline data generated suggest that the levels of radionuclides in the sediments in the Kuwait marine environment are consistent with earlier observations from the area and comparable to other marine waters in the northern hemisphere.
Based on this study it can be concluded that there is no obvious contribution of radionuclides from likely sources including oil and gas industries, wastewater treatment plants and nuclear
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the reviewers for very pertinent suggestions and guidance for revision. Thanks are due to Dr. Samira A.S. Omar (Director General, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research) and Dr. Abdulnabi Al-Ghadban (Executive Director, Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, KISR) for supporting project EM062C, and to the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences for partially funding project P214-44SP-01. Thanks are also due to International Atomic Energy Agency for supporting technical
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