title: New insights on the role of sea ice in intercepting atmospheric pollutants using (129)I.
abstract: Measurements of (129)I carried out on sea ice samples collected in the central Arctic Ocean in 2007 revealed relatively high levels in the range of 100-1400×10(7) at L(-1) that are comparable to levels measured in the surface mixed layer of the ocean at the same time. The (129)I/(127)I ratio in sea ice is much greater than that in the underlying water, indicating that the (129)I inventory in sea ice cannot be supported by direct uptake from seawater or by iodine volatilization from proximal (nearby) oceanic regimes. Instead, it is proposed that most of the (129)I inventory in the sea ice is derived from direct atmospheric transport from European nuclear fuel reprocessing plants at Sellafield and Cap La Hague. This hypothesis is supported by back trajectory simulations indicating that volume elements of air originating in the Sellafield/La Hague regions would have been present at arctic sampling stations coincident with sampling collection.
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CNA), Avda. Thomas alba Edison 7, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: jm_gomez@us.es.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gómez-Guzmán
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física & Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cámara-Mor
authors.affiliation: Reserch Group for Environmental Science, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata-shirane, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (CNA), Avda. Thomas alba Edison 7, Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla, Spain; Dpto. de Física Aplicada I, Escuela Universitaria Politécnica, University of Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: López-Gutiérrez
authors.affiliation: Dpto. de Física Aplicada I, Escuela Universitaria Politécnica, University of Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mas
authors.affiliation: Departament de Física & Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain; Oceans Institute & School of Physics, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; School of Natural Sciences & Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Masqué
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI 02882-1197, USA.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.affiliation: Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2, Canada.
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D001110:Arctic Regions; D001272:Atmosphere; D046448:Ice Cover; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012623:Seawater
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes
keywords: AMS; Arctic Ocean; Atmospheric deposition; Iodine-129; Reprocessing; Sea ice