Application of Plutonium Radionuclide in Soil Erosion Research

Soil erosion is a serious threat to human life. This calls not only for appropriate methods of assessing soil erosion and sedimentation levels but also for the implementation of soil conservation practices. Fallout radionuclides (FRN) such as beryllium-7 (7Be), lead-210 (210Pbex), and cesium-137 (137Cs) have been used as soil redistribution tracers in various studies. The present review aims to investigate the suitability of plutonium 239+240 (239 + 240Pu) radioisotopes as a new tracers for the assessment of soil redistribution rates. Plutonium isotopes are present in the environment mainly due to nuclear activities including nuclear weapon tests and nuclear power plants (NPP). Among them, the 239+240Pu isotopes offer such advantages as long half-lives, availability, relatively easier determination using highly sensitive techniques, and uniformity of their values at reference sites. Application of plutonium isotopes as soil redistribution tracers was first investigated in 1978.However, relatively few practical attempts have been eversince made to exploit the full potential of Pu isotopes as efficient and reliable tools for soil redistribution assessment compared to other existing techniques.