Uptake of Americium and Plutonium from Contaminated Sediments by Three Benthic Species: Arenicola marina, Corophium volutator and Scrobicularia plana

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The biological availability of 241Am and 238Pu contained in a muddy sediment was investigated in 3 burrowing coastal benthic species: the polychaete annelid A. marina, the bivalve mollusc S. plana and the amphipod crustacean C. volutator. The biological availability was expressed in terms of a transfer factor defined as the activity in the organisms (cpm/g wet wt) relative to the activity in the sediment (cpm/g wet wt). For the 3 spp. and both radionuclides, the transfer factors were low (< 1) after 14 days in contact with the contaminated sediment. Uptake by C. volutator (TF [transfer factor] = 0.1) was 10-fold (TF .simeq. 0.01) and 50-fold (TF .simeq. 0.002) greater than uptake by S. plana and A. marina, respectively. A comparative investigation of the biological availability of 241Am and 238Pu contained in seawater showed, for the same exposure period, that the concentration in the organism relative to the concentration in the water (CF) was .apprx. 1000 for Am and 780 for Pu in C. volutator, but lower for the other 2 spp. Part of the Am transferred to the organisms came from the sediment''s interstitial water. Part of the Am retained by the animals resulted from direct transfer from sedimentary particles to organisms.