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Distributions of environmental radionuclides in a marine core from the eastern continental shelf of Hainan Island, South China Sea and risk assessment

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Abstract

Several long half-life natural and anthropogenic radionuclides, including 137Cs, 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K, in a 45 cm-long sediment core collected from the east continental shelf of Hainan Island, South China Sea, have been analyzed. The results showed that mean activity of 137Cs, 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were 2.03 ± 1.2, 20.4 ± 1.8, 45.7 ± 3.0, and 520.0 ± 20.0 Bq/kg, respectively. Radium equivalent activity and External hazard index imply a low radiation, and the study area could serve as a background reference value for environmental radionuclides in east continental shelf of Hainan Island, South China Sea.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (PA2021KCPY0047), the open research fund of the State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SKLLQG1929), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41606070). Jianguo Liu and other team members helped sampling. Raw data for this study is available at public repository Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5112050.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, Anhui, China

    Fengmei Wang, Liqiang Xu, Chao Ji & Lingling Jiang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi’an, 710061, Shanxi, China

    Liqiang Xu

  3. College of Ocean and Meteorology, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, 524088, Guangdong, China

    Deming Kong

Authors
  1. Fengmei Wang
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  2. Deming Kong
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  3. Liqiang Xu
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  4. Chao Ji
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  5. Lingling Jiang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Fengmei Wang, Chao Ji and Lingling Jiang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Fengmei Wang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liqiang Xu.

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Wang, F., Kong, D., Xu, L. et al. Distributions of environmental radionuclides in a marine core from the eastern continental shelf of Hainan Island, South China Sea and risk assessment. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 197–207 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-08081-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-021-08081-4

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