Product catalogue
National Geochemical Survey of Australia: Plutonium Isotopes Dataset
Preamble -- The 'National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia' was published in July 2011 along with a digital copy of the NGSA geochemical dataset (doi: 10.11636/Record.2011.020). The NGSA project is described here: www.ga.gov.au/ngsa. The present dataset contains additional geochemical data obtained on NGSA samples: the Plutonium Isotopes Dataset.
Abstract -- Seventy three fine-fraction (<75 um) Top Outlet Sediment (TOS, 0 – 10 cm depth) NGSA samples from Queensland were analysed for the plutonium (Pu) isotopes 238Pu and 239+240Pu (unresolved 239Pu and 240Pu) to determine: (1) if Pu is detectable in the Australian environment; and (2) what the levels and ranges of Pu retention in selected Queensland catchment soils are.
Radiochemical analyses were performed by alpha spectrometry at the radioanalytical laboratories of Radiation and Nuclear Sciences, Department of Health, Queensland, and at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), Victoria. The method yielded a 239+240Pu trace-level detection limit of 0.04 mBq/g (equivalent to 10.4 fg/kg or 0.0056 net counts per minute) with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 15.1%. The average tracer recovery was 69% (RSD 25%) over a 3-day count. Total analytical uncertainty ranged from 19% to 90% at close to detection limits. Field duplicate repeatability for 239+240Pu activity concentration ranged from 18% to 45%, which in part at least reflects the inherent heterogeneity of soil/sediments containing refractory particles exhibiting variation in Pu activity concentrations. Analytical duplicate repeatability for 239+240Pu activity concentration ranged from 10% to 23%, with the mean activity concentration and error of the replicates reported with propagation of errors.
The results show a wide range of 239+240Pu activity concentration in the fine TOS NGSA samples across Queensland (N = 73):
239+240Pu: Min = <0.04 mBq/g; Med ± MAD (median absolute deviation) = 0.09 ± 0.07 mBq/g; Mean ± SD = 0.29 ± 0.72 mBq/g; 95th percentile = 1.53 mBq/g; Max = 4.88 mBq/g. In comparison the world average background is estimated at 0.2 mBq/g. Analytical results for 39% of samples were below detection.
Six samples with 239+240Pu > 0.18 mBq/g (70th percentile) were also analysed for 238Pu by the same alpha spectrometry method. Results ranged from 0.04 to 0.1 mBq/g (N = 6).
The complete dataset is available to download as a comma separated values (CSV) file from Geoscience Australia's website ( https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144101).
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2020-08-01T00:00:00
- Date (Revision)
- 2020-08-24T04:14:48
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144101
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://doi.org/10.26186/144101
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Cook, M.
Author de Caritat, P.
Author Kleinschmidt, R.
Author Brugger, J.
Author Wong, V.
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- Topic category
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- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Unknown
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- Keywords
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Data Package
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- Theme
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Geochemistry
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- Theme
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Sedimentology
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- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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Earth Sciences
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- Project
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia
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- Project
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NGSA
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- Discipline
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Environmental Radioactivity
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- Process
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Nuclear Test
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- Discipline
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Atmospheric Transport
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- Theme
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Radioisotope
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
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4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Download the data (csv) [661.3 KB]
Download the data (csv) [661.3 KB]
- Distribution format
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csv
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia (doi: 10.11636/Record.2011.020)
Published paper by Cook et al. ( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2020.106398)
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Description
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Source data not available.
Metadata constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/ae1c7d1b-67ef-47a1-b992-93cca92d8a60
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Title
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia: Dataset
- Citation identifier
- 0dc4a02b-21e9-9b28-e053-12a3070af396
- Citation identifier
- 82869
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Name
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia: Plutonium Isotopes Dataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/144101
- Date info (Revision)
- 2018-04-20T06:14:32
- Date info (Creation)
- 2012-06-18T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551