TY - JOUR

T1 - Radioecological investigation of 3H, 14C, and 129I in natural waters from Fuhrberger Feld catchment, Northern Germany

AU - Osman, Alfatih A.A.

AU - Bister, Stefan

AU - Riebe, Beate

AU - Daraoui, Abdelouahed

AU - Vockenhuber, Christof

AU - Wacker, Lukas

AU - Walther, Clemens

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) [contract No. 02 NUK 030D ]; and Siebold-Sasse Foundation .

PY - 2016/12

Y1 - 2016/12

N2 - Ongoing radionuclide releases from nuclear facilities, e.g. from reprocessing plants, but also from nuclear reactors require monitoring of the environment. Particularly drinking water reservoirs are prone to possible radionuclide accumulation fostering the need for routine surveillance. In this work, we investigated tritium (3H), radiocarbon (14C), and iodine-129 (129I) activity levels in natural aquatic samples at the water protection area of Fuhrberger Feld near Hannover city, Northern Germany. For that aim, a low-level liquid scintillation counting (LSC) technique was used to measure 3H in the water samples based on a distillation process after alkaline permanganate treatment. Isotopic ratios for both 14C and 129I were measured by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) after chemical separation and purification of the samples. Mean 3H levels in precipitation (8.8 ± 3.4 TU) were found to be comparable to its levels in precipitation data in Germany. Rivers and small streams revealed similar mean 3H value (11.0 ± 3.3 TU) as in lake water (10.6 ± 3.4 TU). Variations in 3H concentrations in groundwater samples were observed and discussed. 14C levels in all groundwater samples were below the atmospheric natural level of 100 pMC indicating no anthropogenic input of radiocarbon. The 129I/127I isotopic ratios in all investigated water samples were in the order of 10−8 to 10−7, which is significantly higher than the pre-nuclear natural equilibrium isotopic ratio (∼1.5 × 10−12). In strong contrast to all other regional groundwaters, the Fuhrberger Feld groundwater has much higher values of 129I concentration and 129I/127I isotopic ratio close to the ones of surface water. The overall annual effective dose via ingestion for all nuclides in the investigated groundwater remains substantially below the reference dose level of 0.1 mSv a−1.

AB - Ongoing radionuclide releases from nuclear facilities, e.g. from reprocessing plants, but also from nuclear reactors require monitoring of the environment. Particularly drinking water reservoirs are prone to possible radionuclide accumulation fostering the need for routine surveillance. In this work, we investigated tritium (3H), radiocarbon (14C), and iodine-129 (129I) activity levels in natural aquatic samples at the water protection area of Fuhrberger Feld near Hannover city, Northern Germany. For that aim, a low-level liquid scintillation counting (LSC) technique was used to measure 3H in the water samples based on a distillation process after alkaline permanganate treatment. Isotopic ratios for both 14C and 129I were measured by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) after chemical separation and purification of the samples. Mean 3H levels in precipitation (8.8 ± 3.4 TU) were found to be comparable to its levels in precipitation data in Germany. Rivers and small streams revealed similar mean 3H value (11.0 ± 3.3 TU) as in lake water (10.6 ± 3.4 TU). Variations in 3H concentrations in groundwater samples were observed and discussed. 14C levels in all groundwater samples were below the atmospheric natural level of 100 pMC indicating no anthropogenic input of radiocarbon. The 129I/127I isotopic ratios in all investigated water samples were in the order of 10−8 to 10−7, which is significantly higher than the pre-nuclear natural equilibrium isotopic ratio (∼1.5 × 10−12). In strong contrast to all other regional groundwaters, the Fuhrberger Feld groundwater has much higher values of 129I concentration and 129I/127I isotopic ratio close to the ones of surface water. The overall annual effective dose via ingestion for all nuclides in the investigated groundwater remains substantially below the reference dose level of 0.1 mSv a−1.

KW - Fuhrberger Feld

KW - Hannover

KW - Iodine-129

KW - Natural waters

KW - Radiocarbon

KW - Tritium

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84993940461&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.10.011

DO - 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2016.10.011

M3 - Article

C2 - 27794272

AN - SCOPUS:84993940461

VL - 165

SP - 243

EP - 252

JO - Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

JF - Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

SN - 0265-931X

ER -