Plutonium and uranium contamination in soils from former nuclear weapon test sites in Australia

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2013-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Science BV.
Abstract
The British government performed a number of nuclear weapon tests on Australian territory from 1952 through to 1963 with the cooperation of the Australian government. Nine fission bombs were detonated in South Australia at Emu Junction and Maralinga, and a further three fission weapons were detonated in the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. A number of soil samples were collected by the Australian Radiation Laboratories in 1972 and 1978 during field surveys at these nuclear weapon test sites. They were analysed by gamma spectrometry and, for a select few samples, by alpha spectrometry to measure the remaining activities of fission products, activation products and weapon materials. We have remeasured a number of these Montebello Islands and Emu Junction soil samples using the ANTARES AMS facility, ANSTO. These samples were analysed for plutonium and uranium isotopic ratios and isotopic concentrations. Very low Pu-240/Pu-239 ratios were measured at both sites (similar to 0.05 for Alpha Island and similar to 0.02 for Emu Field), substantially below global fallout averages. Well correlated but widely varying U-236 and plutonium concentrations were measured across both sites, but U-233 did not correlate with these other isotopes and instead showed correlation with distance from ground zero, indicating in situ production in the soils. © 2013, Elsevier Ltd.
Description
Keywords
Plutonium, Uranium, Contamination, Soils, Weapons, Bombs
Citation
Child, D.P., & Hochkis, M.A.C. (2013). Plutonium and uranium contamination in soils from former nuclear weapon test sites in Australia. Paper presented to the Twelfth International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Wellington, New Zealand, 20-25 March 2011. In Zondervan, A., Prior, C., Bruhn, F., & Sparks, R. (Eds), Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 642-646. doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2012.05.018