Atmosphere
-
Global inventory of Cs-137 from nuclear tests
The total activity of 137Cs discharged into the atmosphere by all 535 atmospheric nuclear explosions was around 1018 Bq. This is much more than from the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents. For Fukushima, the amount of 137Cs released is estimated to be 1.2 × 1016 Bq and this is about 14% of the emission estimated for the Chernobyl accident (Steinhauser et al., 2014). Some of the 137Cs inventory in the environment has already decayed but the half-life of 30.04 years implies that a large portion persists. Today’s remaining ¹³⁷Cs inventory from atmospheric nuclear tests is on the order of 2–3 × 1017 Bq. A more precise estimate will be determined by a project…
You May Also Like
Exploring Atmospheric Nuclear Tests
-
Exploring Atmospheric Nuclear Tests
Radionuclides released by nuclear test are still widely abundant in the environment and biosphere. Most releases were caused by the nuclear atmospheric test. The last one was conducted by the People’s Republic of China on October 16, 1980. It was the last known atmospheric detonation before the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was negotiated in from 1993 to 1996. With regard to limiting the environmental releases of radioactivity, the major landmark was the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) of 1963. which bans tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater. On August 5, 1963, the PTBT was signed by the three original Depositary Governments, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),…
You May Also Like
Global inventory of Cs-137 from nuclear tests
