Article

Accumulations of artificial radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ^239+240Pu in anchovy from the Korean seas

Marine Environmental Research Center, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Busan 49111, South Korea

^* Corresponding author: ikim@kiost.ac.kr

Received: 7 December 2020
Accepted: 16 March 2021

Abstract

We investigated the accumulation patterns of the artificial radionuclides ¹³⁷Cs and ^239+240Pu in anchovy – categorized into four groups by size– from Korean seas. The activities of ¹³⁷Cs and ^239+240Pu were in the ranges of 74–137 mBq kg⁻¹ and 0.27–3.21 mBq kg⁻¹, respectively. They generally increased with increasing size (except for ^239+240Pu in large anchovy), indicating radionuclide accumulation by seawater uptake through respiratory and/or higher feed capacity as a manifestation of growth. However, the activity of ^239+240Pu decreased sharply in large anchovy. The calculated concentration factors (CFs) of ¹³⁷Cs in anchovy were 10.9–20.2, which are an order of magnitude lower than those in other marine organisms. However, the CFs of ^239+240Pu in adult anchovy were 14.0–162.8, which are significantly higher than those in other fishes and comparable (or even higher) to the IAEA recommendation values. The annual effective dose (AED) rates of ¹³⁷Cs and ^239+240Pu for anchovy consumption (per person) in South Korea were estimated to be 3.7 × 10⁻⁶–6.9 × 10⁻⁶ mSv yr⁻¹ and 0.26 × 10⁻⁶–3.10 × 10⁻⁶ mSv yr⁻¹, respectively. The AED from anchovy consumption is insignificant relative to that of natural radionuclides.