Plutonium From US Nuclear Weapons Tests Polluting South China Sea

A study published in the peer-reviewed Chinese language journal Environmental Chemistry found that plutonium from US nuclear weapons tests is polluting the South China Sea.

A new study has found that plutonium sediments in the South China Sea have their origins in fallout from US nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific in the mid-20th century.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Chinese language journal Environmental Chemistry, traced plutonium particles found in sediments on the seabed of the South China Sea to nuclear weapons tests in the US Pacific Proving Ground, a series of atolls and islands in the South Pacific nearly 3,000 miles to the east, where the US detonated dozens of nuclear weapons between 1946 and 1962.

Their conclusion was based on a precise identification of the ratio of two plutonium isotopes, 240Pu and 239Pu, which is a unique part of the process of manufacturing plutonium. The ratio in the South China Sea sediments is identical to that lef...

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