Distribution of Pu isotopes and 210Pb in the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea: Implications for provenance and transportation.

Abstract Particle-reactive radionuclides are useful for tracing sediment dynamics in marginal seas. We collected a suite of surface sediment samples in May 2014 from the Bohai Sea (BS) and Northern Yellow Sea (NYS) to observe the spatial distribution of Plutonium (Pu) isotopes and 210Pb activities. 239+240Pu activities ranged from 0.001 to 0.288 and 0.040–0.269 Bq kg−1 in BS and NYS surface sediments, respectively. 210Pbex shows a significant correlation with 239+240Pu (r = 0.84, p