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Radiocarbon and Tritium Levels Along the Romanian Lower Danube River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Carmen Varlam ,
Ioan Stefanescu ,
Stela Cuna ,
Irina Vagner ,
Ionut Faurescu  and
Denisa Faurescu
Carmen Varlam*
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Ramnicu Valcea, Romania
Ioan Stefanescu
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Ramnicu Valcea, Romania
Stela Cuna
Affiliation:
Institute for Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Cluj Napoca, Romania
Irina Vagner
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Ramnicu Valcea, Romania
Ionut Faurescu
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Ramnicu Valcea, Romania
Denisa Faurescu
Affiliation:
Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies, Ramnicu Valcea, Romania
*
Corresponding author. Email: cvarlam@icsi.ro
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Abstract

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The Lower Danube Basin covers the Romanian-Bulgarian sub-basin downstream from Cazane Gorge and the sub-basins of the Siret and Prut rivers. To extensively survey the Romanian nuclear power plant impact on the Danube water, tritium and radiocarbon baseline values are required. Therefore, the reported study tried to establish these values based on a 2-yr sampling campaign covering 975 km of the Danube from Cazane Gorge to Tulcea. The tributaries Cerna, Jiu, Olt, and Arges were also included in this study. During the sampling campaigns, tritium concentration of different sampling locations showed values between 7 ± 2.1 and 33.5 ± 2.3 TU. Measured 14C activity for the same locations ranged between 88.45 ± 1.46 and 112.36 ± 1.56 pMC. Lower values were recorded for tributaries: between 8.3 ± 2.1 and 12.2 ± 2.2 TU for tritium and between 67.3 ± 1.29 and 86.04 ± 1.42 pMC for 14C. Despite the nuclear activity in the observed areas, tritium and 14C activities presented slightly higher values for specific locations without any influence on Danube River water.

Type
Methods, Applications, and Developments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 783 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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