Radioactive fallout reconstruction from contemporary measurements of reservoir sediments.
The temporal history of atmospheric deposition to a watershed area can be preserved in the sediment of a lake or reservoir that is supplied by the watershed. The 137Cs and isotopic Pu concentrations with depth were determined in the sediments of two reservoirs, Enterprise and Deer Creek, which are located in widely separated regions of the state of Utah. Our data not only reconstruct the history of the total radioactive fallout in the area, but also permit estimating the contributions from global sources and from the Nevada Test Site detonations in the 1950s.
Environmental Measurements Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, New York, NY 10014-3621.
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D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D009505:Nevada; D009689:Nuclear Warfare; D011005:Plutonium / Q000032:analysis; D011847:Radioactive Fallout / Q000032:analysis*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods; D014589:Utah; D014878:Water Pollution, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis
D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D011005:Plutonium