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<p>Despite the widespread presence of americium in the environment since the 1950s from nuclear activities, the use of americium isotopic composition to trace contamination sources has not been investigated. Here we report the detection of <sup>243</sup>Am in environmental samples and demonstrate that the ratio of <sup>243</sup>Am to <sup>241</sup>Am can serve as a distinctive fingerprint of radioactive emissions, with characteristic values of 0.05 for thermonuclear explosions, 0.023 for global fallout, below 0.0015 for low-yield nuclear tests, and 0.0013 for releases from a nuclear reprocessing facility. In nuclear detonations, <sup>243</sup>Am is produced as the decay product of <sup>243</sup>Pu. The ratio of <sup>243</sup>Am to <sup>239</sup>Pu in global fallout is about 3.2 × 10⁻⁴, supporting the predicted formation of neutron-rich heavy plutonium isotopes during nuclear detonations.</p>

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Trace americium contamination sources in the environment can be detected using 243Am/241Am

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月10日

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  • Elena Chamizo,
  • Mercedes López-Lora,
  • Antonio J. López-Fuentes

摘要

Despite the widespread presence of americium in the environment since the 1950s from nuclear activities, the use of americium isotopic composition to trace contamination sources has not been investigated. Here we report the detection of 243Am in environmental samples and demonstrate that the ratio of 243Am to 241Am can serve as a distinctive fingerprint of radioactive emissions, with characteristic values of 0.05 for thermonuclear explosions, 0.023 for global fallout, below 0.0015 for low-yield nuclear tests, and 0.0013 for releases from a nuclear reprocessing facility. In nuclear detonations, 243Am is produced as the decay product of 243Pu. The ratio of 243Am to 239Pu in global fallout is about 3.2 × 10⁻⁴, supporting the predicted formation of neutron-rich heavy plutonium isotopes during nuclear detonations.