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Plutonium, like other actinides, readily forms a dioxide plutonyl core (PuO 2). In the environment, this plutonyl core readily complexes with carbonate as well as other oxygen moieties (OH −, NO 2 −, NO 3 −, and SO 4 2−) to form charged complexes which can be readily mobile with low affinities to soil. [citation needed] PuO 2 (CO 3) 1 2 ...
The lab's methods for measuring and reporting plutonium concentrations in the environment do not follow accepted scientific practice, Ketterer wrote in a letter to the state Environment Department ...
The environmental management field office pointed to a 2018 DOE study that estimated the radiation dose to a person who might recreate in the canyon is less than 0.1 millirem per year.
In the past, one of the largest releases of plutonium into the environment has been nuclear bomb testing. Those tests in the air scattered some plutonium over the entire globe; this great dilution of the plutonium has resulted in the threat to each exposed person being very small as each person is only exposed to a very small amount.
The Hanford Site occupies 586 square miles (1,518 km 2) – roughly equivalent to half the total area of Rhode Island – within Benton County, Washington. [1] [2] It is a desert environment receiving less than ten inches (250 mm) of annual precipitation, covered mostly by shrub-steppe vegetation.
The environmental management field office pointed to a 2018 DOE study that estimated the radiation dose to a person who might recreate in the canyon is less than 0.1 millirem per year. According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the annual average dose per person from all natural and man-made sources is about 620 mrems.
The Energy Department's Office of Environmental Management at Los Alamos said Thursday it was preparing a response to Ketterer's findings. Ketterer and Coghlan said the concerns now are the continued downstream migration of plutonium, absorption by plants and the creation of contaminated ash following wildfires.
Metallic plutonium is a fire hazard, especially if finely divided. In a moist environment, plutonium forms hydrides on its surface, which are pyrophoric and may ignite in air at room temperature. Plutonium expands up to 70% in volume as it oxidizes and thus may break its container. [44] The radioactivity of the burning material is another hazard.