The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 has released a large amount of radioactive pollutants to the environment. Of the pollutants, iodine-129 is a long-lived radionuclide and will remain in the environment for millions of years. This work first report levels and inorganic speciation of (129)I in seawater depth profiles collected offshore Fukushima in June 2011. Significantly elevated (129)I concentrations in surface water were observed with the highest (129)I/(127)I atomic ratio of 2.2 × 10(-9) in the surface seawater 40 km offshore Fukushima. Iodide was found as the dominant species of (129)I, while stable (127)I was mainly in iodate form, reflecting the fact that the major source of (129)I is the direct liquid discharges from the Fukushima NPP. The amount of (129)I directly discharged from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to the sea was estimated to be 2.35 GBq, and about 1.09 GBq of (129)I released to the atmosphere from the accident was deposited in the sea offshore Fukushima. A total release of 8.06 GBq (or 1.2 kg) of (129)I from the Fukushima accident was estimated. These Fukushima-derived (129)I data provide necessary information for the investigation of water circulation and geochemical cycle of iodine in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in the future.

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A rapid and efficient method for the determination of (99)Tc in environmental solid samples was developed using chromatographic separation combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) measurement. The volatility of technetium during sample ashing and solution evaporation was investigated to establish a reliable sample pretreatment procedure. A novel approach was developed to improve the removal of molybdenum and ruthenium in chromatographic separation using 30% H(2)O(2) pretreatment of the loading solution and extraction chromatographic separation using two serial small TEVA columns. The decontamination factors of more than 4 × 10(4) and 1 × 10(5) are achieved for molybdenum and ruthenium, respectively. Chemical yields of technetium in entire procedure range from 60% to 95% depending on the type and amount of samples, and the detection limit of 0.15 mBq/g for (99)Tc was obtained. The method has been successfully applied for the determination of (99)Tc in environmental solid samples.