Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, National Research Institute, Maritime Branch, Waszyngtona 42, 81-342 Gdynia, Poland. Electronic address: michal.saniewski@imgw.pl.
Radionuclides in the Arctic echinoderms have seldom been studied despite their considerable environmental importance. This manuscript covers the results of 90Sr and 137Cs measurements in common echinoderm taxa collected from the Svalbard Bank in the Barents Sea and from two High-Arctic fjords (Isfjorden and Magdalenefjorden). We focused on the echinoid, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, the asteroid, Henricia sanguinolenta, and the ophiuroid, Ophiopolis aculeata. For all echinoderms, the analysis revealed a negative correlation between 90Sr activity and the mass. Thus, we concluded that metals are accumulated faster at a young age when the growth is most rapid. The highest average activities of 137Cs followed the order O. aculeata>H. sanguinolenta>S. droebachiensis. This suggests that bioaccumulation was highly taxon-dependent and could reflect differences in the isotope exposures associated with the diet of echinoderms. The study provides a baseline for understanding radionuclide processes in the High-Arctic benthic echinoderm communities.
The river Iset belongs to the Techa-Iset-Tobol-Irtysh-Ob system contaminated by liquid radioactive wastes from Mayak plutonium facility in 1949-1956. This study represents the first retrospective analysis of postmortem measurements of 90Sr in bones from residents of the Iset riverside settlements in 1960-1982. It was shown that 90Sr concentration in bones of residents lived in settlements located downstream from the Techa river mouth (Shadrinsk, Isetskoye, Yalutorovsk) was 5 times higher than average 90Sr concentration in bones of the Russian residents. There was not statistically significant difference in accumulated 90Sr in bones between residents of the considered Iset' settlements indicating similar levels of 90Sr ingestion. Dietary 90Sr intake was reconstructed from the measurements of the radionuclide in bones. Total 90Sr dietary intake in 1950-1975 was 68 kBq; and 90% of the intake occurred in 1950-1961. In 1960s, 90Sr-contamination of the diet in settlements located downstream from the Techa river mouth was mostly (by 70%) due to global fallouts. Absorbed dose in the red bone marrow cumulated over 25 years of exposure was equal to 14 (4.7-42) mGy.
The quantity of the long lived (half-life 15.7 million years) radioactive isotope 129I in the pre-nuclear age ocean was approximately 100 kg. Various nuclear related activities, including weapons testing, nuclear fuel reprocessing, Chernobyl and other authorized or non-authorized dumping of radioactive waste have increased the ocean inventory of 129I by more than one order of magnitude. The most important of these sources are the direct marine discharges from the commercial reprocessing facilities at La Hague (France) and Sellafield (UK) which have discharged approximately 1640 kg in the English Channel, and approximately 720 kg in the Irish Sea, respectively. We discuss how this 129I can be used as both a 'pathway' and 'transit time' tracer in the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, as well as a parameter for distinguishing between reprocessed and non-reprocessed nuclear waste in the ocean, and as a proxy for the transport and dilution of other soluble pollutants input to the North Sea.
This research work is devoted to analyzing the processes of accumulation and distribution of long-lived radionuclides of 90Sr and 137Cs in the components of water-sediment-macrophytes of Lake Malye Kirpichiky (Chelyabinsk region). The characteristic features of redistribution of radioactive substances, depending on the texture of the bottom sediments of the lake and the species composition of aquatic vegetation are shown. Also shown is the total stock of radionuclides in water and bottom sediments. The coefficients of 90Sr and 137Cs accumulation in bottom sediments and macrophytes have been calculated.
Laboratory experiments were carried out to study bioaccumulation and determine a concentration factor (CF) for technetium (95mTc) in the homarid crustacean Nephrops norvegicus L. The steady state CF for accumulation from seawater was estimated to be about 2,000 and the biological half-time was about 50 days. The highest tissue Tc concentrations were found in the green gland and the digestive gland. Depuration following accumulation from water was slow with a half-time of about 165 days. Tc accumulation from labelled food followed a biphasic model with one compartment containing about 94 percent of the ingested activity and with a half-time of about 1 day and the second compartment containing about 6 percent of the ingested activity with a half-time of about 56 days. Most retained activity was found in the digestive gland.
Accumulation of artificial and natural radionuclides in the chains of food webs leading to non-predatory and piscivorous fish of the Yenisei River was investigated during one year before and three years after the shutdown of a nuclear power plant at the Mining-and-Chemical Combine (2009-2012). The activity of artificial radionuclides in the samples of biota ofthe Yenisei River (aquatic moss, gammarids, dace, grayling, pike) was estimated. The concentration of radionuclides with induced activity (51Cr, 54Mn, 58Co, 60Co, 65Zn, 141, 144Ce, 152, 154Eu, 239Np) decreased in the biomass of biota after the shutdown of the nuclear power plant; the concentration of 137Cs did not. Analysis of the accumulation factors (C(F)) allows us to expect the effective accumulation of 137Cs in the terminal level of the food web of the Yenisei River--pike (C(F) = 2.0-9.4), i.e. biomagnifications of radiocesium. Accumulation of artificial, radionuclides in non-predatory fish from gammarids was not effective (C(F)
The activity concentrations of (226)Ra and (228)Ra in drinking water were determined in water samples from 176 drilled wells. (226)Ra activity concentrations were in the range of
An obvious correlation between the type of reaction manifested by peripheral blood lymphocytes to low dose irradiation in vitro (adaptive potential), the RBM cell composition (during the period of the major exposure), and the peripheral blood cell composition (at a late time period coincident with the studies of induced radioresistance) has been found in the Techa riverside residents in the later periods after the onset of a long-term low-dose rate radiation exposure (55-60 years later) within a range of individual red bone marrow doses from 0.01 to 1.79 Gy. The nature of these dependences observed in chronically exposed individuals differs from that revealed in the controls. It can be suggested based on the results of the study that the capacity for the adaptive response shown by peripheral blood lymphocytes donated by exposed persons in the remote period after exposure can be regarded as a biological marker of the functional state of the hemopoietic stem cell pool.
Waterborne radioactive releases into the Techa River from the Mayak Production Association in Russia during 1949-1956 resulted in significant doses to about 30,000 persons who lived in downstream settlements. The residents were exposed to internal and external radiation. Two methods for reconstruction of the external dose are considered in this paper, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements of teeth, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) measurements of chromosome translocations in circulating lymphocytes. The main issue in the application of the EPR and FISH methods for reconstruction of the external dose for the Techa Riverside residents was strontium radioisotopes incorporated in teeth and bones that act as a source of confounding local exposures. In order to estimate and subtract doses from incorporated (89,90)Sr, the EPR and FISH assays were supported by measurements of (90)Sr-body burdens and estimates of (90)Sr concentrations in dental tissues by the luminescence method. The resulting dose estimates derived from EPR to FISH measurements for residents of the upper Techa River were found to be consistent: The mean values vary from 510 to 550 mGy for the villages located close to the site of radioactive release to 130-160 mGy for the more distant villages. The upper bound of individual estimates for both methods is equal to 2.2-2.3 Gy. The EPR- and FISH-based dose estimates were compared with the doses calculated for the donors using the most recent Techa River Dosimetry System (TRDS). The TRDS external dose assessments are based on the data on contamination of the Techa River floodplain, simulation of air kerma above the contaminated soil, age-dependent lifestyles and individual residence histories. For correct comparison, TRDS-based doses were calculated from two sources: external exposure from the contaminated environment and internal exposure from (137)Cs incorporated in donors' soft tissues. It is shown here that the TRDS-based absorbed doses in tooth enamel and muscle are in agreement with EPR- and FISH-based estimates within uncertainty bounds. Basically, this agreement between the estimates has confirmed the validity of external doses calculated with the TRDS.
*Federal State Unitary Enterprise Research and Technical Center of Radiation-Chemical Safety and Hygiene, 40 Shchukinskaya St., Moscow, 123182, Russian Federation; †Urals Research Center for Radiation Medicine (URCRM), 68-a Vorovsky St., Chelyabinsk, 454076, Russian Federation.
A profound approach to the analysis of clinical data on the dynamics of major hematopoietic lineages (granulocytopoietic, thrombocytopoietic, and erythrocytopoietic systems) in chronically irradiated humans is proposed. It is based on recently developed mathematical models of these systems in humans, which enable one to study and interpret clinical hematological data. The developed approach is applied to the analysis of statistically processed clinical data, which were obtained under hematological examinations of residents of Techa riverside villages. These people were exposed to chronic irradiation with varying dose rate due to the radioactive contamination of the river basin by the Mayak Production Association. In the course of modeling studies, the relationship between the dynamics of aforementioned systems in examined individuals and the variation of chronic exposure dose rate over the considered period of time is revealed. It is found that the models are capable of reproducing common regularities and peculiarities of the dynamics of systems on hand, including the decreased stationary levels of blood cell concentrations during the period of maximum radiation exposure, the recovery processes during the period of decrease of exposure dose rate, and the prevalence of younger bone marrow granulocytopoietic cells over more mature ones during the entire period. The mechanisms of such effects of chronic irradiation on the hematopoietic lineages are revealed on the basis of modeling studies. All this testifies to the efficiency of employment of the developed models in the analysis, investigation, and prediction of effects of chronic irradiation on human hematopoietic system.
