Radionuclide content of Las Vegas Wash sediments

The Las Vegas Wash is an excavated waterway channel which drains all surface water and effluent discharge from sewage-treatment facilitates from the greater Las Vegas Metropolitan Area to Lake Mead. Fine and course sediment samples were collected at 100-m intervals and analyzed to determine the distribution of gamma-emitting radionuclides in the lower 5,500 m of the Las Vegas Wash. Results indicate depletion of long-lived fission products in upstream Wash sediments. However, trace levels of 137Cs measured in downstream sediments suggest the resuspension and transport of radioactive fallout within the Wash. Levels of 40K, 232Th, 235U, and 238U found in Wash sediments were consistent with levels typically found in southeast Nevada soils.