Leaching of Radionuclides from Samples of Radioactive Slag from a Ground-Surface Nuclear Explosion on the Coast of the Chernaya Bay of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago

Leaching of 137 Cs and 239+240 Pu radionuclides with distilled and seawater from samples of radioactive slag from a ground-surface nuclear explosion on the coast of the Chernaya Bay of the Yuzhnyi Island of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, the Central Test Site of the Russian Federation, was studied in a laboratory. The 137 Cs and 239+240 Pu leach rate is ≤(2.7–3.5) × 10 −6 and (4.8 ± 0.3) × 10 −9 g cm −2 day −1 in contact with distilled water and (0.74–5.0) × 10 −6 and (1.0 ± 0.14) × 10 −8 g cm −2 day −1 in contact with seawater, respectively.