Atmospheric bomb testing

Nuclear bomb produced " 002 and (as HTO) have been used to describe and model this rapid thermocline ventilation (Ostlund et ah, 1974 Sarmiento et ah, 1982 Fine et al., 1983). For example, changes in the distributions of tritium (Rooth and Ostlund, 1972) in the western Atlantic between 1972 (GEOSECS) and 1981 (TTO) are shown in Fig. 10-10 (Ostlund and Fine, 1979 Baes and Mulholland, 1985). In the 10 years following the atmospheric bomb tests of the early 1960s, a massive penetration of F1 (tritium) into the thermocline has occurred at all depths. Comparison of the GEOSECS and TTO data, which have a 9 year time difference, clearly shows the rapid ventilation of the North Atlantic and the value of such transient" tracers. A similar transient effect can be seen in the penetrative distribution of manmade chlorofluorocarbons, which have been released over a longer period (40 years) (Gammon et al., 1982). 

Compared to the sum of all previously performed atmospheric bomb tests, the values for 90Sr, I37Cs, and 239+240 from the... 

Th and U decay chains. Pu is globally found as a result of atmospheric bomb testing, Pu and higher actinides ( Np, Am, were part of the Chernobyl fallout in large parts of Europe and Western Asia. Estimated activities of produced... 

Problem 10.56. One of the products of radiation fallout from atmospheric bomb testing or nuclear accidents as at Chernobyl is iodine-131. People living in a region where iodine-131 was known to have been deposited were encouraged to use salt enriched with nonradioactive iodine-127. What was the basis of this treatment ... 

Fallout from the atmospheric bomb tests fi om the 1950s to the 1960s. 

The gross flux of carbon from atmosphere to ocean is thus ca. 80 Pg C/yr. There are several complications with the above calculation. The isotopic ratios must be steady-state values, which are unavailable due to the changes resulting from atmospheric atom bomb testing. The few available pre-bomb measurements from the late 1950s (Broecker et ah, 1960) together with determinations in corals (Druffel and Linick, 1978) are invaluable tools for determin-... 

Reference materials for radioisotopes have mainly been used for purposes relating to nuclear and radiation safety. Historically, the development of such materials first arose from the need to assess the risk to human populations caused by worldwide contamination of food and the environment as a consequence of atomic bomb testing - particularly from bombs exploded in the atmosphere. Even now, although atmospheric testing ceased many years ago, the residues from these tests still remain the main source of radionuclides such as Cs and °Sr in the global environment (though locally, other sources may be more important in some countries). 

A mass of evidence seems to confirm that the mixing rate of radiocarbon in the atmosphere is rapid, and that with respect to its radiocarbon content the atmosphere can be considered as a homogeneous entirety. The contamination of samples with matter from an extraneous source can nevertheless invalidate this assumption. Two types of contamination can be differentiated physicochemical contamination and mechanical intrusion. There are two forms of physicochemical contamination. One is due to the dilution of the concentration of radiocarbon in the atmosphere by very old carbon, practically depleted of radiocarbon, released by the combustion of fossil fuel, such as coal and oil. The other is by the contamination with radiocarbon produced by nuclear bomb tests during the 1950s and later in the twentieth century. The uncertainties introduced by these forms of contamination complicate the interpretation of data obtained by the radiocarbon dating method and restrict its accuracy and the effective time range of dating. 

Radioactive substances Atmospheric faiiout from bomb testing ioss from sunken submarines emissions in cooiing waters of nuciear power piants Bioaccumuiation into seafood poses heaith risk to humans. 

Table I. Total atmospheric release of long-tired dose-relevant fission radioisotopes and actinides from the atomic bomb tests and the Chernobyl reactor explosion...

Table 4. Calculated fractious of U7Cs and wSr in Swiss soil samples contaminated by fallout from previous (40 years agoI atmospheric atomic bomb testing I component AI and from the 1986 Chernobyl accident (component C) (reference date I January 20031... 

Table 2.12 shows washout ratios of radioactive and stable nuclides as measured in the UK. Fission products from distant bomb tests become attached to natural condensation nuclei in the atmosphere, and enter the accumulation mode of particle sizes (approximately 0.02 to 0.2 pm diameter). Washout ratios in the range 250typically present as particles in the 1-5 pm range, outside the normal accumulation mode, and this explains... 

Harteck (1954) measured the amount of T in the lower atmosphere before H-bomb tests had added significantly to natural activity, and found 4000 and 3 TU in hydrogen and water vapour respectively. The amount of H2 in the atmosphere has increased in recent years due to industrial production (Schmidt, 1974). Circa 1950 there were about 1.5 x 1011 kg of H as H2, compared with 1.4 x 1015 kg as H20. Thus Harteck s values for natural T correspond to tropospheric inventories of 1.8 g as HT and 13 g as HTO. Because HTO is deposited in rain and by vapour transfer to the sea, its residence time in the troposphere is only about a week, similar to that of 137Cs (Fig. 2.8), and more than 90% of the atmospheric inventory is in the stratosphere. By contrast, the residence time of HT in the troposphere is several years (Mason Ostlund, 1979), and most of the atmospheric inventory of HT is in the troposphere. It is only necessary for a small fraction of naturally produced T to form HT to account for the high specific activity of hydrogen gas. 

Impulse marker the subsurface peak of maximum activity of a radionuclide that was produced during a specific time period in the atmosphere (e.g., 137Cs during bomb testing) and can used to measure accumulation rates. 

An anthropogenic addition of 14C into the atmosphere occurred with the nuclear bomb testing from 1952 to 1963, along with the introduction of bomb tritium. As a result, the 14C concentration also increased in plants (Fig. 11.2), in the soil C02, and in recharged groundwater. Values up to 200 pmc have been measured, but they decreased to about 120 pmc by 1987, and to about 110 pmc by 1995. 

Sr90 29.1 y synovial joints By-product of nuclear bomb testing in the atmosphere in the 1940s to 1960s... 

Figure 12 for atmospheric following the onset of H-bomb testing in 1952. The buildup continued... 

Figure 13 Distribution of bomb testing between the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere as reconstructed by Broecker and Peng (1994). The ocean contribution is obtained by a model constrained by the inventory based on the GEOSECS survey. The contribution of the terrestrial biosphere is based on estimates of the biomass and turnover times for trees and active soil humus.

In order to make use of this transient, the contributions of the natural and bomb radiocarbon had to be separated. Three sets of observations went into this separation. First, use was made of measurements on surface waters collected very early in the nuclear testing era (Broecker etal., 1960) and also with results of measurements on prenuclear growth ring-dated corals and mollusks (Drulfel and Linick, 1978 Drulfel, 1981, 1989). Second, use was made of the tritium released to the atmosphere during nuclear tests. As this bomb-test tritium swamped the natural tritium present in the ocean, the vertical distribution of tritium in the sea could be used to establish the limit of penetration of bomb radiocarbon. Finally, based on the radiocarbon analyses made on thermocline waters free of bomb tritium, it was shown that there was a close correlation between the natural ratio and the dissolved silica... 

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