The first volume of the new series, Radioactivity in the Environment, focuses on the environmental occurrence, the speciation, the behaviour, the fate, the applications and the health consequences of that much-feared and much-publicised element, plutonium. Featuring a collection of selected, peer-reviewed, up-to-date papers by leading researchers in the field, this work provides a state-of-the-art description of plutonium in the environment. This title helps to explain where present frontiers are drawn in our continuing efforts to understand the science of environmental plutonium and will help to place widespread concerns into perspective. As a whole this new book series on environmental radioactivity addresses, at academic research level, the key aspects of this socially important and complex interdisciplinary subject. Presented objectively and with the ultimate authority gained from the many contributions by the world's leading experts, the negative and positive consequences of having a radioactive world around us will be documented and given perspective.

Part 1 Introduction - origins and occurrence of plutonium: environmental plutonium - creation of the universe to 21st century mankind, D.M. Taylor
plutonium in the marine environment at Thule, NW-Greenland after a nuclear weapons accident, H. Dahlgaard et al
isotropic ratio of Pu released from fuel cycle facilities -importance of radio-chemically pure 236Pu as a tracer, H. Yamana et al. Part 2 Analytical methodologies: plutonium measurement using accelerator mass spectrometry - methodology and applications, D. Oughton et al
ICP-MS analysis of environmental plutonium, Y. Muramatsu et al
methods for applying plutonium fission track analysis, L.C. Sun and Y.-H. Xue. Part 3 Speciation and distribution of plutonium in the environment: distribution and movement of environmental plutonium, G.R. Choppin and A. Morgenstern
the preliminary development of a plutonium in blood plasma equilibrium model, J.R. Duffield
actinides associated with particles, B. Salbu
speciation and transformation of sorbed Pu on geologic materials - wet chemical and spectroscopic observations, M.C. Duff
a plutonium geochemical database for performance analysis of high-level radioactive waste repositories, M. Yui et al
studies of the speciation, colloidal association and remobilization of plutonium in the marine environment, P.I. Mitchell et al
microbial transformations of plutonium and implications for its mobility, A.J. Francis
interaction of Pu, Np and Pa with anacrobic microorganisms at geologic repositories, T. Sasaki et al. Part 4 Case studies: global transport of plutonium from Nagasaki to the Arctic - review of the Nagasaki Pu investigation and the future, A. Kudo et al
long-term trends of plutonium fallout observed in Japan, K. Hirose et al
the behaviour of plutonium in the Pacific Ocean, H.D. Livingston et al
plutonium in temperate and Arctic lakes, M. Eriksson et al
plutonium - the legacy of Sellafield, P.J. Kershaw et al
characteristics of cumulative deposition of fallout Pu in environmental samples collected in South Korea, M.H. Lee and C.W. Lee
plutonium mobility and its fate in soil and sediment environments, Y. Mahara and A. Kudo
the present radiological situation at the nuclear weapons test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan with regard to plutonium contamination, G.M. Voigt et al
some aspects of plutonium in and around the former Soviet Union's Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, M. Yamamoto et al
plutonium in the environment of Poland (a review), J.W. Mietelski
a review of plutonium releases from the Savannah River site, subsequent behaviour within terestrial and aquatic environments and resulting dose to humans, T.G. Hinton and J.E. Pinder III
closing overview and discussion, D.M. Taylor.