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Characterizing 226Ra and its daughters in coastal zone groundwater of a typical human-activity affected bay: occurrence, safety, and source evaluation

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Abstract

Due to their extremely toxic properties, 226Ra and it daughters (222Rn, 210Pb, and 210Po) in drinking groundwater require monitoring. Recent studies have reported exceptionally high levels of natural 210Po (up to 10,000 Bq/m3), 226Ra, and 222Rn isotopes in groundwater. This study aims to provide background data on 226Ra and its daughter radionuclides in the typical agricultural-industrial Dongshan Bay (DSB) before the construction of Zhangzhou Nuclear Power Plant (Zhangzhou NPP). The measurement results indicate that no abnormally high activities of 210Po and 210Pb were detected in the investigated wells. Strong positive correlations between 210Pb and 210Po, as well as between 222Rn and 210Pb activities, suggest that the origins of 210Pb and 210Po in groundwater are strongly influenced by the decay of the parent radionuclides 222Rn and 210Pb, respectively. In the DSB coastal zone groundwater, significant deficiencies of 210Po relative to 210Pb and 210Pb relative to 222Rn were observed, providing further evidence that 210Po and 210Pb are also effectively scavenged due to their geochemical properties (specifically particle affinity) within the groundwater-aquifer system. A systematic comparison among all relevant water bodies in the DSB revealed that the activity concentrations of 210Pb and 210Po in groundwater were the highest, except for rainwater. Based on the evaluation of 210Pb sources, the results imply that submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important pathway for transferring radionuclides (such as 210Pb) from land to the nearshore marine environment, even though the study area has a lower 210Pb background groundwater. By considering all the 210Pb’s sources in the DSB, we found low 210Pb background groundwater discharge still needs to be taken into account for small-scale bays. This is because SGD was calculated to be one of the most important 210Pb sources in the bay during observation season. Regardless of whether the system is in a normal state or a nuclear accident emergency state, greater attention should be paid to the groundwater discharge of radionuclides into the ocean.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42206166).

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Author notes

  1. Wenqing Zhou and Hao Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Natural Resources, National Ocean Technology Center, Tianjin, 300112, China

    Wenqing Zhou, Yi Shao & Da Zhou

  2. Ministry of Natural Resources, Key Laboratory of Ocean Observation Technology, Tianjin, 300112, China

    Wenqing Zhou, Yi Shao & Da Zhou

  3. Ministry of Natural Resources, Third Institute of Oceanography, 184 # DaXue Road, Siming District, Xiamen, 361005, Fujian Province, China

    Hao Wang & Qiangqiang Zhong

  4. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China

    Qiangqiang Zhong & Xueqing Yu

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  1. Wenqing Zhou
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Contributions

WZ: methodology, writing—review and editing. HW: methodology, conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. QZ: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. YS: visualization, formal analysis. DZ: data curation, formal analysis. XY: data analysis, writing—review and editing, resources, supervision.

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Correspondence to Qiangqiang Zhong.

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Highlights

1. Before the construction of a nuclear power plant, 226Ra and its daughters in Dongshan Bay groundwater were characterized.

2. A strong correlation (R2 = 0.88) was discovered between 210Pb and 222Rn in coastal zone groundwater.

3. The discharge of radionuclides through SGD needs to be considered for small-scale bays.

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Zhou, W., Wang, H., Zhong, Q. et al. Characterizing 226Ra and its daughters in coastal zone groundwater of a typical human-activity affected bay: occurrence, safety, and source evaluation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 8703–8718 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31784-y

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