Transport and distribution of artificial gamma-emitting radionuclides in the River Yenisei and its sediment

Discharges from the Krasnoyarsk Mining and Chemical Industrial Complex (KMCIC) near Krasnoyarsk resulted in radioactive contamination of sediments of the River Yenisei. Between 1999 and 2006, 16 sediment cores were collected at different positions 15–1500 km downstream from the discharge point. The concentration of artificial gamma-emitting radionuclides (137Cs, 60Co, 152Eu, and 241Am) was determined with the objective to analyze the migration processes leading to the transport of these radionuclides along the river and to their vertical distribution within the sediment. In cores taken in the vicinity of the reactors, the average activity concentration of 137Cs, 152Eu, and 60Co was about 1000 Bq kg−1, and the activity concentration of 241Am was about 20 Bq kg−1. Contamination levels of artificial radionuclides were decreasing with increasing distance downstream the KMCIC: The fastest decrease of average activity by a factor of 10 over a distance of 300 km was observed for 241Am, whereas for 137Cs this decrease occurred over a distance of 1100 km. Sequential extraction experiments revealed that in all depths and at all distances the studied radionuclides were tightly bound to the sediment.To investigate the mechanisms of transport of the 137Cs and 60Co contamination, mathematical models have been used to describe the contamination in the river water and within the sediments.