Occurrence and behavior of radionuclides in the Moselle River. Part 1: Entry of natural and artificial radionuclides

Various sources contribute to the radioactive contamination of the Moselle River, among which the French NPP Cattenom with four units of 1300 MWe represents the most important. Appropriate operational precautions were taken in order to monitor the nuclide transfer on different pathways under normal...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental radioactivity 1996-01, Vol.30 (3), p.199-213
Main Author: Mundschenk, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Freshwater
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Various sources contribute to the radioactive contamination of the Moselle River, among which the French NPP Cattenom with four units of 1300 MWe represents the most important. Appropriate operational precautions were taken in order to monitor the nuclide transfer on different pathways under normal and accidental conditions and the effectiveness of these measures has been tested using natural ( super(214)Pb/ super(214)Bi, super(7)Be, super(40)K) and artificial radionuclides. ( super(3)H, super(58)Co, super(60)Co, super(131)I, super(137)Cs) as tracers. Measurements of suspended matter have revealed that the inputs of natural nuclides exceed the discharges of the NPP Cattenom. In 1992 the annual loads of super(7)Be and super(40)K in suspended matter at Palzem amounted to 21 and 130 GBq/year, whereas the emission rates of super(60)Co and super(137)Cs were about 2.6 and 1.0 GBq/year. The total nuclide load of super(137)Cs at Palzem reached 6.2 GBq/year, which is about six times the quantity emitted by the NPP Cattenom in the same year. This excess is due to the accident at Chernobyl and to a lesser extent to prior atmospheric weapons tests.
ISSN:0265-931X