Distribution of 137Cs Radionuclide in Industrial Wastes Effluents of Gresik, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

The distribution of anthropogenic radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs was measured from industrial waste effluent of Gresik to Gresik Sea in east Java, Indonesia. The activity of ³⁷Cs detected at all stations was much lower than in northeast Japan both before and after NPP Fukushima accident. This indicated that in Gresik industrials waste did not consist of ¹³⁷Cs. The lowest activity ¹³⁷Cs occurred at the station nearest to the industrial waste effluent that contained some particle ions that were able to scavenge ¹³⁷Cs and then precipate this radionuclide. Furthermore, the greatest ¹³⁷Cs occured at the station that has high current speeds that stirred up sediment to release ¹³⁷Cs in seawater as a secondary source. The lowest salinity did not effect on the activity of ¹³⁷Cs even though the lowest salinity and activity ¹³⁷Cs occured at the same station.

Received: 04 October 2014; Revised: 09 March 2015; Accepted 23 March 2015