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Plutonium isotopes in settling particles: transport and scavenging of Pu in the western Northwest Pacific.

We examined the vertical distributions of 239+240Pu activity and 240Pu/239Pu atom ratio in settling particles and quantified the particulate 239+240Pu fluxes in the water column in the western Northwest Pacific. Settling particle samples were collected using sediment traps. Plutonium isotopes were analyzed using a sector field high-resolution ICP-MS. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that both Pu activity and Pu isotope ratio data have been obtained for settling particles in the Pacific Ocean. The high (>0.18) 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios in settling particles indicate that plutonium from the Pacific Proving Grounds (PPG) source in the central Pacific is transported toward the western Northwest Pacific. Evidence indicates that Pu scavenging onto the settling particles is strongly dependent upon the bulk mass flux. The results suggest that advective lateral transport of dissolved Pu from the open ocean to the ocean margin and removal of Pu into the margin sediments by particle scavenging is a common phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean. Plutonium can be considered as a useful tracer to study the transport and fate of other contaminants that readily adsorb to particles in marine environments.