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Interdisciplinary Approaches for Sustainable Development Goals pp 189–202Cite as

Sources, Transport and Sinks of Radionuclides in Marine Environments

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Part of the book series: GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences ((GEPS))

Abstract

In this paper, major global sources of radionuclides are presented and discussed with respect to marine environments. It has been shown that the atmospheric fallout from nuclear weapons testing has been the most significant source of radionuclides in the oceans and seas. As a result, areas within the 0°–60° N latitude bands received the greatest loads of 137Cs, which is related to the fact that the majority of nuclear test sites were located at these latitudes. The relative input from the Chernobyl disaster to the oceans was significantly lower than from the fallout from nuclear weapons tests. It has also been presented that in order to determine the potential impact of radionuclides on humans, with the continuous release of radionuclides to the oceans and the seas, the total influence from all sources is more significant than the initial concentration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

    Kasper Zielinski

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  1. Kasper Zielinski
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Correspondence to Kasper Zielinski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland

    Tymon Zielinski

  2. University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland

    Iwona Sagan

  3. University of Gdansk, Gdynia, Poland

    Waldemar Surosz

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Zielinski, K. (2018). Sources, Transport and Sinks of Radionuclides in Marine Environments. In: Zielinski, T., Sagan, I., Surosz, W. (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches for Sustainable Development Goals. GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71788-3_13

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