Suspended sediment fluxes and associated 137Cs, 238Pu, 239-240Pu, 7Be, 210Pb from the Rhône river towards the Mediterranean Sea over the 2002-2004 period

Titre du congrès :EUROSTRATAFORM Ville du congrès :Salamanque Date du congrès :24/10/2005

  From January 2002 to October 2004, the monitoring of the Rhône River was performed in Arles at the IRSN Observatory Station. Several cubic meters of water were collected every 15 days for low and moderated flow rates (< 3000 m3 s"1) and until 5 fold per day during floods (>3000 m3 s") both for Total Suspended Sédiment (TSS) and gamma emitters concentration analysis. 121 samples were thus analysed. Gamma spectrometry analyses where achieved using Germanium HP detectors. The variability of both the suspended load and fluxes within the whole wet section of the river in front of the Observatory Station was quantified for différent flow rates in order to give an accurate estimation of the solid fluxes and associated radionuclides to the Sea.