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Radioactivity in the Baltic Sea: inventories and temporal trends of 137Cs and 90Sr in water and sediments

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Abstract

The Baltic Sea is ecologically unique as one of the world’s largest brackish water basins. It was significantly contaminated by radioactivity following the Chernobyl accident in 1986, the major contaminant being long-lived 137Cs. Due to the slow exchange of water between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea and the relatively rapid sedimentation rates, radionuclides have prolonged residence times in the Baltic Sea. 137Cs levels are consequently still clearly higher than in other water bodies around the world. In addition to the Chernobyl accident, artificial radionuclides in the Baltic Sea originate from the global fallout following nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s, while discharges into the Baltic Sea from nuclear power plants and other facilities are of minor importance. Here, inventories and the temporal evolution of radionuclides both in seawater and sediments of the Baltic Sea are presented and discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to HELCOM-MORS laboratories for sharing their data with us and we would like to thank the following persons for fruitful co-operation: Sven Nielsen (Denmark); Eia Jakobson (Estonia); Jürgen Herrmann and Günther Kanisch (Germany); Visvaldis Graveris (Latvia); Beata Vilimaite-Silobritiene (Lithuania); Maria Suplinska and Tamara Zalewska (Poland); Yuri Panteleev, Andrey Stepanov and Victor Tishkov (Russia); and Maria Lüning (Sweden).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. STUK Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland

    Tarja Katri Ikäheimonen, Iisa Outola & Vesa-Pekka Vartti

  2. Finnish Environment Institute, Marine Centre, Helsinki, Finland

    Pekka Kotilainen

Authors
  1. Tarja Katri Ikäheimonen
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  2. Iisa Outola
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  3. Vesa-Pekka Vartti
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  4. Pekka Kotilainen
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Correspondence to Tarja Katri Ikäheimonen.

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Ikäheimonen, T.K., Outola, I., Vartti, VP. et al. Radioactivity in the Baltic Sea: inventories and temporal trends of 137Cs and 90Sr in water and sediments. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 282, 419–425 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-009-0144-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-009-0144-1

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