Intercalibration of selected anthropogenic radionuclides for the GEOTRACES Program

Timothy C. Kenna, Pere Masqué, Jose Luis Mas, Patricia Camara-Mor, Elena Camizo, Jan Scholten, Mats Eriksson, Joan-Albert Sanchez-Cabeza, Janine Gastaud, Isabelle Levy, Jürgen Herrmann, Patric Lindahl, Gi-Hoon Hong, Sven Poul Nielsen

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    As part of the GEOTRACES Program, six laboratories participated in an intercalibration exercise on several anthropogenic radionuclides of interest. The effort was successful for 239,240Pu activity, 240Pu/239Pu isotope ratio, and 137Cs activity measured in filtered seawater samples from the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series station (BATS) and a site on the continental slope of the Northeastern U.S. A limited number of analyses were reported for 237Np, 241Am, 90Sr, and 238Pu in filtered seawater. Intercalibration of any of the isotopes of interest in filtered particulate matter was unsuccessful due to insufficient size of the samples distributed. Methods used were based on traditional radio-counting techniques and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Although the majority of analyses were performed on samples ≥ 60 L, one lab demonstrated the ability to analyze several of the anthropogenic radionuclides on 10-20 L sample volumes using ICP-MS.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalLimnology and Oceanography: Methods
    Volume10
    Pages (from-to)590–607
    ISSN1541-5856
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

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