Abstract:
In order to study the concentration and distribution of
14C in aquatic environment in the vicinity of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after twenty years’ operation, an apparatus extracting dissolved inorganic carbon from water was set up and applied to pretreat the water samples collected around Qinshan NPP. The
14C concentration was measured by accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS). The results show that the
14C specific activities in surface seawater samples range from 196.8 to 206.5 Bq/kg ((203.4±5.6) Bq/kg in average), which are close to the background. The
14C concentrations in cooling water discharged from Qinshan NPP are close to the
14C values in near shore seawater samples out of liquid radioactive effluent discharge period. It can be further concluded that the
14C discharged previously is diluted and diffused well, and no
14C enrichment in seawater is found. Also, no obvious increment in the
14C specific activities of surface water and underground water samples are found between Qinshan NPP region and the reference region.