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The Natural Radioactive Isotopes of Beryllium in the Environment

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The Natural Radioactive Isotopes of Beryllium in the Environment 4t 5 I THE NATURAL RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES OF BERYLLIUM IN THE ENVIRONMENT CONVEN'ERS* KARL K. TUREKIAM ('YALE) H,ERBm \FOLJCHOK ('E.Mt.ME ) # - .. DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency Thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. DISCLAIMER Portions of this document may be illegible in electronic image products. Images are produced from the best available original document. 4 The following pages are an exact representation of what is in the original document folder. THE NATURAL RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES OF BERYLLImI IN THE ENVIRONFENT Abstracts and a report of a meeting sponsored by Yale University and the U.S. Department of Energy Conveners: Karl K. Turekian (Yale) and Herbert L. Volchok (Ern, DOE) A considerable amount of work has been done to date on the environmental pathways of the two cosmogenic radioactive isotopes of beryllium, 7~e(53 day half-life) and ''Be (1.5 x lo6 year half-life). 7~ehas pro'ven useful as an index of aerosol scavenging over the oceans and a tool for the measurement of bioturbation rates in lake and estuarine sediments. ''Be has been of value in determining rates of accumulation of deep-sea sediments and manganese nodules. Both nuclides are produced in the stratosphere and troposphere by cosmic rays. The rate of production of each nuclide, the rate and locus of its entry into the troposphere, and the rate and locus of its delivery to the earth's surface can be determined for each nuclide. This is of value in helping us understand the ultimate disposition of other nuclides injected into both the troposphere and the stratosphere. In addition, determining the mechanism of removal of beryllium isotopes from the marine system provides one more nuclide useful as a model of the behavior of reactive nuclides introduced into the sea. ' The usual methods of counting 7~eand ''Be have been by tedious radio- chemical separations followed by either gamma (7~e)or beta (l 'Be) counting. Recently two methods have greatly improved the possibility of increasing the quality and quantity of data for both these nuclides. 7~eis determinable, in manv cases, by.high resolution, high efficiency lithium germanium detectors - made even more useful with new computer spectrum analysis techniques. ' 'Be can now be measured by accelerators (cyclotron or Van de Graaff) thereby reduc- ing background uncertainties as well as requiring smaller amounts of sample for analvsis. We felt that a conference on 7~eand 1°Be in the environment was appro- priate at this time for the reasons implicit in the above, namely: 1. A large amount of 7~edata in air, sea water and sediments already exists. A review of the significance of these data from a number of labora- tories is desirable in planning for future work. 2. The number of high quality l0Be data obtained by low level beta count- ing has increased dramatically in the past few years and has challenged our earlier ideas about both the atmospheric production rate and the methods of transport to marine repositories. Recently the potential of the accelerator in determining ''Be quickly and accurately has been demonstrated. A discussion of the types of geochemical and geophvsical problems to be addressed with both techniques, as well as the need for intercalibration amont the various labora- tories is critical at this time. PRO GRAM - - - _______ - - . -- .- THE NATURAL RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES OF BERYLLIUM IN THE ENVIRONMENT (Sponsored by Yale University and the,U.S. Department of Energy) I Room 101 Kline Geology Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Monday, 0ctober 1, 1979 I 8 : 30 AM Introductory remarks t 8:40 O'Brien: Cosmogenic production of 7~eand ''Be in the atmosphere 9 : 25 Peirson: Fifteen years of atmospheric 7~emeasurements around the world 1O:lO Coffee 7 10: 30 Sanak : Be in the atmosphere 7 I 11:15 Feely : Be in surface air 12:OO LIJXCH : Dining Hall, Kline Biology Tower 1:00 PM Naidu: Sir years of 7~emeasurements in precipitation at Brookhaven 7 I I 1:45 Hussein: Determination of Belozone ratios in the stratosphere I 2: 30 Silker and Young: 7~ein the oceans 3: 15 Coffee :3 : 35 Benninger: 7~ein the study of particle mixing rates in nearshore and lake sediments 7 4 :20' Cutshall: Be in river and estuarine sediments -5:05 Dion : 7~ein Sargasso Sea and Long Island Sound waters 5:20 Session ends Tuesday, October 2, 1979 8: 30 AN Introductory remarks 8:40 Tanaka : 'OB~ stratigraphies in Pacific sediment cores back to four million years I 9: 25 . Raisbeck: ''Be in air and water mass stdie's 10:lO Coffee 10: 30 Ku : ''Be in the marine environment I 11:15 Parker and Cochran: . The use of a Van de Graaff accelerator in deter- mining 1°Be in marine materials 12: 00 LUNCH 1:30 PM Finkel: 'OB~ in glacial studies 7 2:15 Volchok: Summary of Be section and discussion 3:00 ' Coffee 10 3: 20 Turekian: Summary of Be. section and discussion PARTICIPANTS Joseph Bennett University of Washington Dept . of Oceanography, KB-10 Seattle, L'N 98195 Larry K. Benninger Dept. of Geology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27514 J. Kirk Cochran Dept. of Geology and Geophysics Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Worman H. Cutshall Bldg. 3504 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge, TX 37830 Eric P. Dion Dept. of Geology and Geophysics Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Vincent A. Dutkiewicz X.Y. State Dept. of Health Div. of Laboratories and Research Empire State Plaza D535 Albany, NY 12201 Environmental Measurements Laboratory U.S. Department of Energy 376 Hudson St. New York, fu'Y 10014 Robert Finkel Scripps Institution of Oceanography S-002 Universitv of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093 David X. Edgington Center for Great Lakes Studies University of Wisconsin P .O. Box 413 Xlwaukee , IJis . 53201 Liaqnat Husain N.Y. State Dept. of Health Div. of Laboratories and Research Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12201 I<. J . Jenkins Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (617) 548-1400 IJoods Hole, Mass. 02543 ext. 2554 Michael D. Krom Dept. of Geology and Geophysics Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Dept. of Geological Sciences University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90007 Augusto Mangini Dept . of Geology and Geophysics (203) 436-0372 Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 J.R. Naidu Safety and Environmental Protection (516) 345-4263 Bldg. 535A Brookhaven National ~aborator~ Upron, NY 11973 Keran O'Brien Environmental Measurements Laboratory (212) 620-36332 U.S. Department of Energy 376 Hudson St. New York, NY lOOlh Charles Osterberg Office of Health and Environment U.S. Department of Energy Vashington, D.C. 20SLt-5 Peter D. Parker Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (203) 436-2320 Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Douglas H. Peirson Environmental and Medical Science Division Abingdon (0235) Harwell, Oxon 24141 Ext. 4160 United Kingdom Alex Pszenny Box 3, Graduate School of Oceanography (401) 792-6256 university of Rhode Island Kingston, RI 02881 Grant M. Raisbeck Laboratoire Ren4 Bernas Centre de SpectromBtrie Nuclgaire et de Spectrom6trie de Masse 91406 Orsay, France John A. Robbins Great Lakes Research Division University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Ali Rusheed Environment Health Center Div. of Laboratories and Research N.Y. State Department of Health Empire State Plaza Albany, NY 12201 Joseph Sanak Centre des Faibles Radioactivites C.N.R.S. 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France Wyatt B. Silker Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratory Box 999 Richland, IJN 99352 J.R. Southon Tandem Laboratory (416) 525-911 GSB 105, McMaster University Ext. 4046 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Shigeo Tanaka Institute for Nuclear Study University of Tokyo Tanashi, Tokyo 188, Japan Karl K; Turekian Dept . of Geology and Geophysics Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 Herbert L. Volchok Environmental Measurements Laboratory U.S. Department of Energy ' 376 Hudson St. ,, New York, h9' 10014 James A. Young Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratory 329 Bldg., P .O. Box 999 Richland, I\% 99352 ABSTRACTS These abstracts and summaries are for information only and this report should not be cited in referencing. Permission to quote data that are not yet in print should be obtained from the author of the abstract and should then be cited either as "Personal communication" or "j.n press" (in a particu- lar journal or citable technical report series). Keran 0 'Brien Cosmogenic production of 7~eand ''Be in the atmosphere D.H. Peirson and R.S. Cambrav Beryllium-7 in surface air Joseph Sanak and Ggrard Lambert 7~eand 32~in the Antarctic atmosphere Herbert LI. Feely, Herbert L. Volchok and Colin Sanderson Seasonal variations in the concentration of Be-7 in surface air J.R. Kaidu, A.F.. ?loorthy and A.P. Hull '~elevels in precipitation and air as measured at BhT during the vears 1971-1973 Liaquat Husain, Ali Rusheed and Vincent Dutkiewicz Determination of 7~e/ozoneratios in the stratosphere J.A. Young end F7.B. Silker Aerosol deposition velocities on the Pacific and Atlantic 9:sans 7 calculated from Be measurements S.
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