title: Pu isotopes in soils collected downwind from Lop Nor: regional fallout vs. global fallout.
abstract: For the first time, soil core samples from the Jiuquan region have been analyzed for Pu isotopes for radioactive source identification and radiological assessment. The Jiuquan region is in downwind from the Lop Nor Chinese nuclear test (CNT) site. The high Pu inventories (13 to 546 Bq/m(2)) in most of the sampling locations revealed that this region was heterogeneously contaminated by the regional fallout Pu from the CNTs. The contributions of the CNTs to the total Pu in soils were estimated to be more than 40% in most cases. The (240)Pu/(239)Pu atom ratios in the soils ranged from 0.059 to 0.186 with an inventory-weighted average of 0.158, slightly lower than that of global fallout. This atom ratio could be considered as a mixed fingerprint of Pu from the CNTs. In addition, Pu in soils of Jiuquan region had a faster downward migration rate compared with other investigated places in China.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China [2] Research Center for Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Anagawa 4-9-1, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Wenting
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Youyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Qiuju
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Anagawa 4-9-1, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Radiation Protection, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Anagawa 4-9-1, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uchida
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D011005:Plutonium / Q000032:analysis*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D012987:Soil; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D011005:Plutonium