137Cs in marine samples from the Brazilian southeastern coastal region

The present work presents the results of 137Cs concentration in seawater, fish and sediments samples collect in 11 sampling points, crossing the Brazilian Southeastern coastal region, from Vitória (ES) to Santos (SP), on a routine basis from 1997 to 2002. This monitoring program was carried out by the Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD/CNEN/MCT), in cooperation with the Instituto de Estudos do Mar Almirante Paulo Moreira (IEAPM/Brazilian Navy), aiming at determining artificial radionuclides in marine samples. Additionally to the 137Cs results, 90Sr concentrations in fish samples from 1998 to 2002 are also reported. The 137Cs in seawater follows a lognormal distribution, with a geometric mean of 1.8 Bq m-3 and a geometric standard deviation of 1.4 (n=54), decay corrected to June/2002. For 137Cs levels in fish samples a geometric mean of 0.19 Bq kg−1 and a geometric standard deviation of 2.9 (n=39), decay corrected to June/2002, with a range of 0.03 to 1.7 Bq kg−1, were obtained. Based on the 137Cs mean concentration in fish as well as in seawater, a transfer factor of 1 × 102 was calculated, which is quite in agreement with the recommended value found in the Safety Report Serie 19.