68 



TRANSURANIC ELEMENTS IN THE ENVIRONMENT 



QUILLAYUTE 

 1.0 



CASCADE 



MOUNTAINS 



QUILLAYUTE, 

 1.0 



ROCKY 

 MOUNTAINS 



RICHLAND 

 2.3 



ROCKY FLATS 

 3.0 



Fig. 3 Relative concentrations of ^Be and ' ''Cs in air from late 1973 tlirough early 

 1975 normalized to 1 for Quillayute. 



those from nuclear weapons testing. Comparable data for the production of isotopes of 

 mass greater than 246 by the nuclear industry were not available, but higlier 

 concentrations relative to ^^^Pu would be expected through perhaps mass 252. 



Reported releases of transuranium elements from nuclear plant operations indicate 

 that, in general, these have been very small. Loss of material around the Rocky Flats 

 plant (Krey and Hardy, 1970) has resulted in some environmental contamination, and 

 elevated atmospheric concentrations have been observed through resuspension. Accidents 

 involving aircraft carrying nuclear weapons (Langliam, 1970) have resulted in the spread 

 of plutonium over limited areas; however, these appear to have resulted in rather minor 

 injections of plutonium into the atmosphere. 



Since the testing of the first theriTionuclear device in 1952, substantial amounts of 

 fission products, as well as transuranium elements, have entered the stratosphere. These 

 injections result in the long-term, relatively slow deposition of radioactivity over the 

 entire surface of the earth. As a first approximation, the transuranium elements appear to 

 behave in their atmospheric transport in essentially the same manner as other fission 

 products. Figure 4 shows, for example, that the ratio of ' ^^Cs to 2 3 9,2 4 0pj^ ^^^ ^^^^ 



