Abstract
THE deposition of large amounts of radiocaesium from nuclear weapons testing and from accidents such as Chernobyl has necessitated study of the fate of these long-lived radioisotopes in the natural environment. Caesium is known to interact strongly with micaceous clay minerals in soils and sediments1–4. Radiocaesium can therefore be removed from the water column in lake systems by settling particles and surface sediments5. This process reduces its mobility and the risk of assimilation by biota. Nevertheless, there are indications that radiocaesium may be mobilized from lacustrine anoxic sediments6. Direct evidence, however, can come only from measurements on pore water from lake sediments, and here we report such measurements. Actual in situsolid/liquid distribution coefficients (Kd values), determined from our data, provide convincing evidence for post-depositional mobilization of particle-bound 137Cs. This is probably caused by ion exchange with NH4+which reaches high concentrations in anoxic pore waters. The pore-water data indicate that radiocaesium is returned to the water column and thus becomes available for uptake by aquatic organisms.
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Comans, R., Middelburg, J., Zonderhuis, J. et al. Mobilization of radiocaesium in pore water of lake sediments. Nature 339, 367–369 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1038/339367a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/339367a0
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