caa a22 4500 528785427 20200221032539.0 cr unu---uuuuu 180924e20131018xx s 000 0 eng 10.3929/ethz-b-000073550 doi 10.1038/srep02988 doi (ETHRESEARCH)oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/73550 Plutonium release from Fukushima Daiichi fosters the need for more detailed investigations [Elektronische Daten] [Stephanie Schneider, Clemens Walther, Stefan Bister, Viktoria Schauer, Marcus; id_orcid 0000-0002-3131-6652 Christl, Hans-Arno Synal, Katsumi Shozugawa, Georg Steinhauser] Open access ethresearch The contamination of Japan after the Fukushima accident has been investigated mainly for volatile fission products, but only sparsely for actinides such as plutonium. Only small releases of actinides were estimated in Fukushima. Plutonium is still omnipresent in the environment from previous atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. We investigated soil and plants sampled at different hot spots in Japan, searching for reactor-borne plutonium using its isotopic ratio 240Pu/239Pu. By using accelerator mass spectrometry, we clearly demonstrated the release of Pu from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant: While most samples contained only the radionuclide signature of fallout plutonium, there is at least one vegetation sample whose isotope ratio (0.381 ± 0.046) evidences that the Pu originates from a nuclear reactor (239+240Pu activity concentration 0.49 Bq/kg). Plutonium content and isotope ratios differ considerably even for very close sampling locations, e.g. the soil and the plants growing on it. This strong localization indicates a particulate Pu release, which is of high radiological risk if incorporated. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 ethresearch Mass spectrometry ethresearch Environmental monitoring ethresearch Environmental chemistry ethresearch Schneider Stephanie joint author Walther Clemens joint author Bister Stefan joint author Schauer Viktoria joint author Christl Marcus; id_orcid 0000-0002-3131-6652 joint author Synal Hans-Arno joint author Shozugawa Katsumi joint author Steinhauser Georg joint author Scientific Reports London : Nature Publishing Group 3, p. 2988 2045-2322 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/73550 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) 1 Journal Article ethresearch ETHRESEARCH 856 40 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/73550 text/html WWW-Backlink auf das Repository (Open access) ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Schneider Stephanie joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Walther Clemens joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Bister Stefan joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Schauer Viktoria joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Christl Marcus; id_orcid 0000-0002-3131-6652 joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Synal Hans-Arno joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Shozugawa Katsumi joint author ETHRESEARCH 700 1- Steinhauser Georg joint author ETHRESEARCH 773 0- Scientific Reports London : Nature Publishing Group 3, p. 2988 2045-2322 BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH ETHRESEARCH Journal Article Open access