Time-dependent 241Am activity in the environment from decay of 241Pu released in the Chernobyl accident

The time-dependent activity of the alpha-emitting radionuclide Am-241, resulting from beta-decay of Pu-241 present in the accidental release from Unit 4 of the Chernobyl NPP, has been studied. The ratios of the activity of Pu-241 to those of Pu-239,Pu- 240 and of Pu-238,Pu- 239,Pu- 240 at the time of the accident have been derived as 69.6 + 0.6 and 47.1 + 0.4, respectively. Based on these results, a prediction of the future activity ratio Am-241/ Pu-238,Pu-239,Pu-240 has been made, showing that it will increase slowly to the value 1 in the year 2005 and to a maximum value of 1.7 at the end of this century, followed by a gradual decrease. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.