A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale that occurred on March 11, 2011, on Honshu Island, Japan, caused radioactivity leakage from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which led to the leakage of artifi...A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale that occurred on March 11, 2011, on Honshu Island, Japan, caused radioactivity leakage from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which led to the leakage of artificial nuclides(131I, 137 Cs, and 134Cs) and their global transportation by atmospheric circulation. This paper reports a systematic comparative observation on radioactive concentrations of natural nuclides(7Be and 210Pb) and artificial nuclides(131I, 137 Cs, and 134Cs) at the surface level, measured in weekly continuous aerosol sampling at Mount Guanfeng, Guiyang, China, from March 17, 2011 to April 28, 2011. During this period, the variations in the nuclide concentrations associated with their transport paths were analyzed with 315 hour back-trajectories of air mass initialized 500 m above the surface level at Guiyang. The results show that the pollutants of nuclear leakage from the Fukushima accident were transported to the Guiyang region of China via two significant pathways. In the first pathway the first wave of nuclear pollutants were transported from west to east in air masses at higher altitudes via global atmospheric circulation. The nuclear pollutants encircled the Earth almost once and after about 10 days to two weeks, between March 24 and March 31, 2011, intruded Guiyang from the northwestern region of China. In the second pathway, the nuclear pollutants from the Fukushima region arrived at Guiyang between April 7 and April 14, 2011, via air masses at lower altitudes that moved southwards because of the squeezing of the northeast Asian weather system and then by the influence, in succession, of the northeastern and southeastern air currents in the low-latitude region. The first transport pathway for atmospheric pollutants is on a global scale and based on air masses at higher altitudes, and the second transport pathway is on an eastern Asia regional scale and based on the air masses at lower altitude.展开更多
A better understanding of the variation of 210Pb concentrations in the surface air is the key to trace lake sedimentation and catchment erosion, to establish and vali-date the global diffusion model of contaminants, a...A better understanding of the variation of 210Pb concentrations in the surface air is the key to trace lake sedimentation and catchment erosion, to establish and vali-date the global diffusion model of contaminants, and to as-sess the impact of natural radiation on the ecological system. Basing on the study progresses of the sedimentation, the at-mospheric model and the unique environmental background in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and starting from December 20, 2001, we made use of a 500 NE Type aerosol sampler to collect filter samples, once a week in the past consecutive two years, in the surface air at Mt. Guanfeng, Guiyang City, China. Synchronous detailed γ -energy spectrometric obser-vations of 210Pb concentrations at both Chinese and U.S. laboratories have shown that the average monthly 210Pb concentration displays a regular U-patterns distribution of annual variations, with high values appearing in winter and low values in late spring and summer. The average annual 210Pb concentrations are estimated to be 2.77±0.63 mBq/m3, about 4 times the average maximum concentrations reported from quite a number of monitoring stations throughout the world. The possible factors affecting the sources of 210Pb in the surface air in the central part of Guizhou Province are: Release of 222Rn from the U-Ra series enriched in the soils; chemical weathering of carbonate rocks; the exploitation, processing and utilization of coal and phosphorous resources. The principal factor controlling the high 210Pb concentrations in the surface air in the central Guizhou and their annual U-pattern distribution is the release of 222Rn. The average monthly 210Pb concentrations show a good negative power- function relationship with increasing precipitation and also show a good negative linear-function relationship with the rise of air temperature in month grouping. Group No.1 (June to November) reflects a relatively low release of 222Rn from soils in relatively high temperature seasons; Group No.2 (December to May) mirrors a relatively high release of 222Rn from soils in relatively low temperature seasons. The average monthly 210Pb concentrations simulated in terms of the pre-cipitation and air temperature are in good consistency with the measured values, revealing that the regular U-pattern distribution characteristics of 210Pb concentrations in the surface air in the central Guizhou are controlled predomi-nantly by regional precipitation and air temperature. Meanwhile, it is also indicated that the magnitude of varia-tion of air temperature and precipitation within the same year also constrains the ratio of high values over low values of average monthly 210Pb concentrations. On a month time scale, precipitation and air temperature are a main factor affecting the release of 222Rn from soils (rocks). In this aspect strong evidence has been obtained.展开更多
基金financially supported jointly by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41175115)the EML of the United States of America
文摘A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale that occurred on March 11, 2011, on Honshu Island, Japan, caused radioactivity leakage from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which led to the leakage of artificial nuclides(131I, 137 Cs, and 134Cs) and their global transportation by atmospheric circulation. This paper reports a systematic comparative observation on radioactive concentrations of natural nuclides(7Be and 210Pb) and artificial nuclides(131I, 137 Cs, and 134Cs) at the surface level, measured in weekly continuous aerosol sampling at Mount Guanfeng, Guiyang, China, from March 17, 2011 to April 28, 2011. During this period, the variations in the nuclide concentrations associated with their transport paths were analyzed with 315 hour back-trajectories of air mass initialized 500 m above the surface level at Guiyang. The results show that the pollutants of nuclear leakage from the Fukushima accident were transported to the Guiyang region of China via two significant pathways. In the first pathway the first wave of nuclear pollutants were transported from west to east in air masses at higher altitudes via global atmospheric circulation. The nuclear pollutants encircled the Earth almost once and after about 10 days to two weeks, between March 24 and March 31, 2011, intruded Guiyang from the northwestern region of China. In the second pathway, the nuclear pollutants from the Fukushima region arrived at Guiyang between April 7 and April 14, 2011, via air masses at lower altitudes that moved southwards because of the squeezing of the northeast Asian weather system and then by the influence, in succession, of the northeastern and southeastern air currents in the low-latitude region. The first transport pathway for atmospheric pollutants is on a global scale and based on air masses at higher altitudes, and the second transport pathway is on an eastern Asia regional scale and based on the air masses at lower altitude.
基金This work was supported by the National N atural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.40373038)the National Key Project for Basic Research(Grant No.2002CB4 12300).
文摘A better understanding of the variation of 210Pb concentrations in the surface air is the key to trace lake sedimentation and catchment erosion, to establish and vali-date the global diffusion model of contaminants, and to as-sess the impact of natural radiation on the ecological system. Basing on the study progresses of the sedimentation, the at-mospheric model and the unique environmental background in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, and starting from December 20, 2001, we made use of a 500 NE Type aerosol sampler to collect filter samples, once a week in the past consecutive two years, in the surface air at Mt. Guanfeng, Guiyang City, China. Synchronous detailed γ -energy spectrometric obser-vations of 210Pb concentrations at both Chinese and U.S. laboratories have shown that the average monthly 210Pb concentration displays a regular U-patterns distribution of annual variations, with high values appearing in winter and low values in late spring and summer. The average annual 210Pb concentrations are estimated to be 2.77±0.63 mBq/m3, about 4 times the average maximum concentrations reported from quite a number of monitoring stations throughout the world. The possible factors affecting the sources of 210Pb in the surface air in the central part of Guizhou Province are: Release of 222Rn from the U-Ra series enriched in the soils; chemical weathering of carbonate rocks; the exploitation, processing and utilization of coal and phosphorous resources. The principal factor controlling the high 210Pb concentrations in the surface air in the central Guizhou and their annual U-pattern distribution is the release of 222Rn. The average monthly 210Pb concentrations show a good negative power- function relationship with increasing precipitation and also show a good negative linear-function relationship with the rise of air temperature in month grouping. Group No.1 (June to November) reflects a relatively low release of 222Rn from soils in relatively high temperature seasons; Group No.2 (December to May) mirrors a relatively high release of 222Rn from soils in relatively low temperature seasons. The average monthly 210Pb concentrations simulated in terms of the pre-cipitation and air temperature are in good consistency with the measured values, revealing that the regular U-pattern distribution characteristics of 210Pb concentrations in the surface air in the central Guizhou are controlled predomi-nantly by regional precipitation and air temperature. Meanwhile, it is also indicated that the magnitude of varia-tion of air temperature and precipitation within the same year also constrains the ratio of high values over low values of average monthly 210Pb concentrations. On a month time scale, precipitation and air temperature are a main factor affecting the release of 222Rn from soils (rocks). In this aspect strong evidence has been obtained.
