irActinide: measuring natural radionuclides in Lake Geneva
The project in a nutshell:
Lake Léman provides important water resources to the Swiss and French society. Radioactive isotopes of uranium (U) and thorium (Th) series, and their descendants, are ubiquitous in the environment and can provide valuable information on diverse hydrogeological processes in lakes. Traces of anthropogenic radionuclides such as plutonium (Pu) and americium (Am) are also found in Lake Léman as a result of the global atmospheric fallout from nuclear weapons testing.
The aim of this project is to determine geochemical background concentrations of natural uranium isotopes (U-238, U-234, U-235) and anthropogenic uranium isotopes (U-233 and U-236), as well as radium isotopes (Ra-226), at different depths in Lake Léman. In addition, we are testing Diffusive Gradients in Thin films (DGT), a passive sampling technique that enables measurement of labile radionuclide fraction averaged over time.
Team members
-
- Dr Ruslan Cusnir – Institut de Radiophysique de l’Université de Lausanne
-
- Prof. Samuel Jaccard – Faculté des Géosciences et de l’Environnement de l’Université de Lausanne
Back to Current Projects