First measurements of anthropogenic and natural radionuclides in surface soils (10 cm) of Côte d'Ivoire

239–240Pu and 137Cs activities in soil samples were measured in two sites of the littoral part of Côte d'Ivoire: Abidjan and the classified forest of “la Comoé”. Two areas were chosen: a forest and a clearing. The aim of this work is to establish a starting point for nuclear contamination data of a non-nuclear country. Measured soil cores were of 10 cm depth. 137Cs and 239–240Pu activities, mainly due to weapon nuclear tests in the 1960s, were in the range 0.37–2.3 and 0.023–0.125 Bq kg−1 respectively. 239–240Pu/137Cs values were found to be about 0.024–0.19 in agreement with the expected value for nuclear tests.