Changes in HTO and OBT activity concentrations in the Perch Lake aquatic ecosystem

Kim, S.B.; Farrow, F.; Bredlaw, M.; Stuart, Marilyne

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.10.015

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Even though tritium is strongly mobile in the environment through its HTO form and rapidly disperses and dilutes within water masses, the OBT form is frequently found in some reservoirs where OM is preserved such as in soils 7,8 and in riverine, lacustrine or marine surface sediments 5,9,28,30 . Consequently, if such OBT storages exist, we can expect that biogeochemical processes in these reservoirs due to OM degradation would act as a delayed source of HTO and/or dissolved OBT for the atmosphere and hydrosphere.…”

Section: What We Currently Know On Environmental Behavior Of Tritium mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for tritium persistence as organically bound forms in river sediments since the past nuclear weapon tests

Eyrolle

Copard

Lepage

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tritium of artificial origin was initially introduced to the environment from the global atmospheric fallout after nuclear weapons tests. Its level was increased in rainwaters by a factor 1000 during peak emissions in 1963 within the whole northern hemisphere. Here we demonstrate that tritium from global atmospheric fallout stored in sedimentary reservoir for decades as organically bound forms in recalcitrant organic matter while tritium released by nuclear industries in rivers escape from such storages. Additionally, we highlight that organically bound tritium concentrations in riverine sediments culminate several years after peaking emission in the atmosphere due to the transit time of organic matter from soils to river systems. These results were acquired by measuring both free and bound forms of tritium in a 70 year old sedimentary archive cored in the Loire river basin (France). Such tritium storages, assumed to be formed at the global scale, as well as the decadal time lag of tritium contamination levels between atmosphere and river systems have never been demonstrated until now. Our results bring new lights on tritium persistence and dynamics within the environment and demonstrate that sedimentary reservoir constitute both tritium sinks and potential delayed sources of mobile and bioavailable tritium for freshwaters and living organisms decades after atmospheric contamination.

show abstract