Fate and Transport of Artificial Radionuclides in Soil-Water Environment

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

The ease with which radionuclide moves through the environment and is taken up by plants and animals is determined by its chemical forms and site-specific environmental characteristics. The peculiarities in climate, geomorphology and radionuclide speciation in the fallout were demonstrated to lead to differences in their migration rates in the environment and rates of its natural attenuation. Wash-off from the slopes of contaminated catchments and river transport are key long-term pathways for radionuclide dispersal from contaminated areas after nuclear accidents. Studies and modeling of accidentally released radionuclide’s fate and transport in the environment serve as a basis for emergency response decision making and remediation strategy development in case of nuclear emergencies.

The aim of the Topic is to set up collection of research articles and reviews covering wide research area dealing with speciation of artificial radionuclides in the environment and its transformation, radionuclide sorption-desorption, fixation and remobilization processes in soil-water system, radionuclide wash-off from contaminated catchments to rivers and lakes, river transport to sea/ocean, radionuclide bioavailability and transfer to plants and biota, long-term dynamics of radionuclides in environmental compartments, empirical, semi-empirical and numerical modeling of artificial radionuclide’s behavior in the environment, remediation and decontamination technologies for contaminated land. Objectives of the Topic and potential content are interdisciplinary (soil science and chemistry, hydrochemistry, ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, radioecology, hydrology, environmental modeling etc.) and in line with the scopes of Water, Toxics, Land and Environments in the field “Soil-sediment-water systems-hydro-ecological processes at multiple scales”.

Research articles and reviews will be invited for submission on the following themes: Radionuclide speciation in the environment and its transformation; Vertical and lateral migration of radionuclides in soils and sediments; Radionuclide wash-off from contaminated land to water bodies and river transport; Short-, mid- and long-term dynamics of radionuclides in the environment; The use of radionuclides as chronomarkers, including for assessment of erosion-denudation processes; Modelling of radionuclide fate and transport in the environment; Nuclear emergency response and decision making; Remediation and decontamination of contaminated land and soil-water systems.

Prof. Dr. Alexei Konoplev
Dr. Mikhail Komissarov
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Water water	3.0	5.8	2009	17.5 Days	CHF 2600
Toxics toxics	3.9	4.5	2013	18.3 Days	CHF 2600
Land land	3.2	4.9	2012	16.9 Days	CHF 2600
Environments environments	3.5	5.7	2014	22.8 Days	CHF 1800

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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All Water Toxics Land Environments

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21 pages, 2025 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Bottom-Sediment Removal on ¹³⁷Cs Contamination in an Urban Pond

by Honoka Kurosawa, Yoshifumi Wakiyama, Toshihiro Wada and Kenji Nanba

Land 2023, 12(2), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12020519 - 20 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2021

Abstract

Many irrigation ponds in Fukushima Prefecture were decontaminated due to the contamination of radiocesium released from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. To evaluate the impact of decontamination on ¹³⁷Cs dynamics in an urban pond in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, temporal changes [...] Read more.

Many irrigation ponds in Fukushima Prefecture were decontaminated due to the contamination of radiocesium released from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. To evaluate the impact of decontamination on ¹³⁷Cs dynamics in an urban pond in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, temporal changes in ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in bottom sediments and pond water were investigated before and after bottom-sediment removal. Post-decontamination, ¹³⁷Cs inventories in bottom sediments decreased by 46–89%. ¹³⁷Cs inventories in bottom sediments were relatively high in fine sediments before decontamination, and were also high at points near the water inlet after decontamination. Following decontamination, the mean ¹³⁷Cs concentration in suspended solids (SS) and the mean dissolved ¹³⁷Cs concentration in pond water decreased by 52% and 5%, respectively. Even after decontamination, the normalized ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in SS and in water, which were calculated by dividing the ¹³⁷Cs concentrations by the mean ¹³⁷Cs inventories in each area, were higher than those in rivers, dam reservoirs, and ponds elsewhere in Fukushima. The positive correlations between δ¹⁵N values, an indicator of the source contribution to bottom sediments, and ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in the upper 5 cm of bottom sediments after decontamination implied that SS from urban areas gradually increased the ¹³⁷Cs inventories in the pond. The results underline the importance of secondary inputs of ¹³⁷Cs from highly urbanized catchments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Fate and Transport of Artificial Radionuclides in Soil-Water Environment)
(This article belongs to the Section Land, Soil and Water)

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26 pages, 4408 KiB  

Open AccessReview

Sediment and Particulate ¹³⁷Cs Budget Studies in Upa River Basin: History, Results, and Prospects

by Maksim M. Ivanov, Nadezhda Ivanova and Valentin Golosov

Land 2023, 12(1), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/land12010175 - 5 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2122

Abstract

The intensive pollution of vast areas after the Chernobyl accident, especially in the territories of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, has not only become a serious environmental issue, but also presents wide methodological opportunities for studying the functioning of natural systems. The proposed work [...] Read more.

The intensive pollution of vast areas after the Chernobyl accident, especially in the territories of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, has not only become a serious environmental issue, but also presents wide methodological opportunities for studying the functioning of natural systems. The proposed work is a generalization of the results of studies on the migration of ¹³⁷Cs in the runoff of river sediments, which were carried out in the basin of the Upa River for over 30 years after the accident. This basin is one of the most radioactively contaminated and studied in Central Russia. Over the past three decades, under the conditions of the decreasing snowmelt runoff in the spring and reduced share of cultivated land over the post-Soviet period, the intensity of the ¹³⁷Cs transfer has decreased. The ¹³⁷Cs deposit losses associated with erosion activities do not exceed a few percent. Most of the mobilized sediments and sediment-associated radionuclides accumulate in dry valleys or artificial reservoirs. With a general reduction in the durations of floods, rivers have become the predominant channels for the transfer of sediment yield and particulate pollutants. The exploration of the vertical distribution of the ¹³⁷Cs in the accumulative strata makes it possible to identify the changes in the sediment budgets of the rivers and their radioecological consequences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Fate and Transport of Artificial Radionuclides in Soil-Water Environment)
(This article belongs to the Section Land, Soil and Water)

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22 pages, 4250 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Artificial Radionuclides in the System: Water, Irrigated Soils, and Agricultural Plants of the Crimea Region

by Natalia Mirzoeva, Nataliya Tereshchenko and Andrey Korotkov

Land 2022, 11(9), 1539; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11091539 - 11 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2470

Abstract

In the frame of the radioecological monitoring after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, the features of migration and distribution of artificial radionuclides in the North Crimean Canal (NCC) irrigation system were studied. Standard methods of radiochemical analyzes and modern radiospectrometric equipment were [...] Read more.

In the frame of the radioecological monitoring after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, the features of migration and distribution of artificial radionuclides in the North Crimean Canal (NCC) irrigation system were studied. Standard methods of radiochemical analyzes and modern radiospectrometric equipment were used. It was determined that the irrigation system of the NCC retains 43–59% ⁹⁰Sr, 59–60% ^239+240Pu, and 66–70% ¹³⁷Cs of the concentration radionuclides entering to irrigated fields with the Dnieper waters. The NCC irrigation system plays the role of a buffer against the radionuclide pollution of the Karkinitsky Bay (the Black Sea). Differences in the accumulation of radionuclides by agricultural crops were revealed. The ⁹⁰Sr and ^239+240Pu transfer factors (TF) for alfalfa were n × 10⁻² and n × 10⁻¹, respectively. The TF for wheat, corn, and rice for ⁹⁰Sr were n × 10⁻³, and for ^239+240Pu—n × 10⁻². A radioecological assessment on the safety agriculture along the NCC was made: in the absence of an increase in the entry of the Chernobyl origin radionuclides with the Dnieper river waters to the NCC, the levels of activity concentration of artificial radionuclides in cultivated crops will not exceed the maximum permissible concentration for food raw materials in the coming years. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Fate and Transport of Artificial Radionuclides in Soil-Water Environment)
(This article belongs to the Section Land, Soil and Water)

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14 pages, 1617 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Reconstruction of the Long-Term Dynamics of Particulate Concentrations and Solid–Liquid Distribution of Radiocesium in Three Severely Contaminated Water Bodies of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Based on Current Depth Distribution in Bottom Sediments

by Alexei Konoplev, Gennady Laptev, Yasunori Igarashi, Hrigoryi Derkach, Valentin Protsak, Hlib Lisovyi, Kyrylo Korychenskyi, Serhii Kirieiev, Dmitry Samoilov and Kenji Nanba

Land 2022, 11(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010029 - 24 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3113

Abstract

Given the importance of understanding long-term dynamics of radionuclides in the environment in general, and major gaps in the knowledge of ¹³⁷Cs particulate forms in Chernobyl exclusion zone water bodies, three heavily contaminated water bodies (Lakes Glubokoe, Azbuchin, and Chernobyl NPP Cooling [...] Read more.

Given the importance of understanding long-term dynamics of radionuclides in the environment in general, and major gaps in the knowledge of ¹³⁷Cs particulate forms in Chernobyl exclusion zone water bodies, three heavily contaminated water bodies (Lakes Glubokoe, Azbuchin, and Chernobyl NPP Cooling Pond) were studied to reconstruct time changes in particulate concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs and its apparent distribution coefficient K_d, based on ¹³⁷Cs depth distributions in bottom sediments. Bottom sediment cores collected from deep-water sites of the above water bodies were sliced into 2 cm layers to obtain ¹³⁷Cs vertical profile. Assuming negligible sediment mixing and allowing for ¹³⁷Cs strong binding to sediment, each layer of the core was attributed to a specific year of profile formation. Using this method, temporal trends for particulate ¹³⁷Cs concentrations in the studied water bodies were derived for the first time and they were generally consistent with the semiempirical diffusional model. Based on the back-calculated particulate ¹³⁷Cs concentrations, and the available long-term monitoring data for dissolved ¹³⁷Cs, the dynamics of ¹³⁷Cs solid–liquid distribution were reconstructed. Importantly, just a single sediment core collected from a lake or pond many years after a nuclear accident seems to be sufficient to retrieve long-term dynamics of contamination. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Fate and Transport of Artificial Radionuclides in Soil-Water Environment)
(This article belongs to the Section Land, Soil and Water)

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