Archives → 2019 → Vol. 59, No. 3 → pp. 311-320
Article
Research of Tritium Content in Soil in the Places of Nuclear Testingon the Territory of Semipalatinsk Test Site
Aktayev M.R.1, Lukashenko S.N.1, Aidarkhanov A.O.1, Lyakhova О.N.1, Тоktaganov Т.S.1, Tokarev I.V.2
1Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology NNC RK, Kurchatov, Kazakhstan 2 St. Petersburg State University, Scientific Park, Resource enter “Geomodel”, St. Petersburg, Russia
Abstract
The «Atomic» lake is the result of the first Soviet industrial thermonuclear explosion with soil outburst, conducted in January 1965 and aimed at creation of artificial reservoirs in arid regions. The explosion was carried out in a warfare borehole (№ 1004), 700 mm in diameter at a depth of 180 m. As a result of explosion and subsequent filling of the crater with flood water, an artificial reservoir with the capacity of about 6 mln/m3 was formed. This paper provides findings about the present state of the lake reservoir that was formed after the thermonuclear explosion was conducted and the reservoir created. It has been found that micro-macro components (ions and water impurities) and artificial radionuclides concentration are characterized by spatial distribution in the reservoir. In each case, the lowest values can be observed on the surface (down to 10 m) of the lake, the highest ones – at the bottom (60–80 m). It has been found that a stable distribution nature of the components under study takes place at a depth starting with 20 m. Soils and lake bottom sediments are probable sources of radionuclide contamination. The basic mechanism affecting radionuclide distribution is water layer stratification associated with the salt content.
Keywords
body of water "Atomic lake", radionuclide tritium (3H), strontium (90Sr), stable isotopes (2H/18O), micro-macro components, depth distribution
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