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Origin of technetium-99 and its use as a marine tracer

Nature volume 335, pages 338–340 (1988)Cite this article

Abstract

The Chernobyl accident caused a variety of radionuclides to be released. The most abundant of the longer-lived nuclides were the two caesium isotopes 137Cs and 134Cs, with half lives of 30 yr and 2.06 yr respectively1. For many years2–5 these radionuclides have been used as oceanographic tracers in the north-east Atlantic Ocean. Their sources are the fuel reprocessing plants in Western Europe. The radiocaesium released from Chernobyl, however, was deposited very inhomogeneously6, thus seriously perturbing its use as a tracer. So, there is a need to identify another tracer with the same sources but unperturbed by input from Chernobyl. Technetium-99 is not sedimented to any great degree and thus as a conservative tracer7 can be considered as a candidate. In a recent study2 we found the same dilution factor for technetium as for radiocaesium when comparing concentrations in the North Sea with those in coastal waters around Greenland, supporting the idea of technetium as a substitute tracer for radiocaesium. Here we report a study of the possible contributions to 99Tc in order to determine the Chernobyl input. We chose the Baltic Sea for our study because it probably shows higher concentrations of Chernobyl debris than any other sea. We show that the Chernobyl contribution is such that 99Tc can be used as a tracer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Risø National Laboratory, DK-4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    A. Aarkrog, Q. J. Chen, H. Dahlgaard, L. H. Jensen & S. P. Nielsen

  2. Radiation Physics Department, University of Lund, S-22185, Lund, Sweden

    L. Carlsson

  3. International Laboratory of Marine Radioactivity, MC-98000, Monaco

    E. Holm & L. Huynh-Ngoc

  4. German Hydrographic Institute, D-2000, Hamburg, 4, FRG

    H. Nies

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  1. A. Aarkrog
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  2. L. Carlsson
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  4. H. Dahlgaard
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  5. E. Holm
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  7. L. H. Jensen
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  8. S. P. Nielsen
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  9. H. Nies
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Aarkrog, A., Carlsson, L., Chen, Q. et al. Origin of technetium-99 and its use as a marine tracer. Nature 335, 338–340 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/335338a0

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