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The Norwich Symposium, 'Radionuclides in the Study of Marine Proces ses', is a sequel to the very successful conference held at Cherbourg, France in June 1987. The international character of the meeting has been maintained with thirty-eight contributions, from seventeen countries, being accepted for oral presentation. For many years, the radioactive properties of the naturally occurring radionuclides have been used to determine their distributions in the marine environment and, more generally, to gain an understanding of the dynamic processes which control their behaviour in attaining these distributions. More recently the inputs from human activities of both natural and artificial (i.e. man-made) radionuclides have provided additional opportunities for the study of marine processes on local, regional and global scales. Because the sources of artificial radionuclides are often reasonably well defined in space and time, and because a wider range of elements is represented, new viewpoints for the study of processes have become available. Although it is outside the scope of this Symposium, it must be acknowledged that the radiological protection requirements for radioactive waste disposal prac tices to be based on a sound scientific understanding of radionuclide behaviour in the sea have also provided a very strong impetus for the studies.
This book on Marine Radioactivity sets out to cover most of the aspects of marine radioactivity which have been the focus of scientific study in recent decades. The authors and their reviews divide into topic areas which have defined the field over its history. They cover the suite of natural radioisotopes which have been present in the oceans since their formation and quantitatively dominate the inventory of radioactivity in the oceans. Also addressed are the suite of artificial radionuclides introduced to the oceans as a consequence of the use of the atom for development of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons and various applications of nuclear science. The major source of these continues to derive from the global fallout of atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s but also includes both planned and accidental releases of radioactivity from both civilian and military nuclear technology. The other division of the major study direction depends on whether the objective is to use the radionuclides as powerful tools to study oceanic processes, to describe and understand the ocean distribution of the various natural or artificial radionuclides or to assess the different radionuclides' impact on and pathways to man or marine organisms. The oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface and thus contains a corresponding large share of the Earth's radioactivity. Marine Radioactivity covers topics of recent scientific study in this young field. It examines both natural radioactivity (radioactivity naturally present in oceans since their formation) and artificial radioactivity (radioactivity introduced by man and use of atomic and nuclear energy) with regard to possible effects on the global environment.
ABSTRACT: Naturally-occurring radioisotopes are ubiquitous in nature, and as such, there are many opportunities for researchers to use them as environmental tracers. Their associated radioactive decay rates provide an inherent time clock that often makes these radioisotopes more effective chemical tracers than other substances, since they can help assess the temporal component of a particular process. Radioisotopes were employed in this study to examine different coastal oceanographic processes that have far reaching consequences. A review of various measurement methods for assessing Ra-226 concentrations, a valuable tracer employed throughout most of this dissertation, is presented. This is followed by applying natural radioisotopes to study various oceanographic processes in China, Hawaii, and a river system in the southeastern United States.
Naturally occurring radionuclides are found throughout the earth's crust, and they form part of the natural background of radiation to which all humans are exposed. Many human activities-such as mining and milling of ores, extraction of petroleum products, use of groundwater for domestic purposes, and living in houses-alter the natural background of radiation either by moving naturally occurring radionuclides from inaccessible locations to locations where humans are present or by concentrating the radionuclides in the exposure environment. Such alterations of the natural environment can increase, sometimes substantially, radiation exposures of the public. Exposures of the public to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that result from human activities that alter the natural environment can be subjected to regulatory control, at least to some degree. The regulation of public exposures to such technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory and advisory organizations is the subject of this study by the National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of EPA Guidelines for Exposures to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.