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Radioactive Contaminants in Aquatic Ecosystems

Thomas G. Hinton
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
P O Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802
(803) 725-7454 office
(803) 725-3309 fax
thinton(at)uga.edu

Dr. Hinton's research on aquatic systems emphasizes the environmental transport of radioactive contaminants, with the goal of better understanding their dynamics among system components and improving predictions of their long-term fate.

Because most previous studies of ¹³⁷Cs in southeastern reservoirs had occurred > 5 years after its initial entry into the water column, Dr. Hinton led a complex whole-lake experiment using non-radioactive stable cesium as a tracer (Fig. 2) to examine the initial behavior of Cs, and to compare results from Southeastern lakes in the United States to European lakes contaminated with Chernobyl fallout. By sampling water, sediments, fish, invertebrates and macrophytes (Fig. 2), Dr. Hinton, with collaborators from Colorado State University (Drs. John Pinder and Ward Whicker), has been able to determine the short-term dynamics of Cs, and has documented the importance of uptake by aquatic plants (a component not accounted for in the European research).

Figure 2. ¹³³Cs was added as an acute spike to the water column of Pond 4, an 11.4-ha reservoir on the U. S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.

Relevant Works

Pinder, J. E., T. G. Hinton and F. W. Whicker. (in press). Foliar uptake of cesium from the water column by aquatic macrophytes. J. Environ. Radioactivity.
Pinder III, J. E., T. G. Hinton and F. W. Whicker 2005. The influence of a whole-lake addition of stable cesium on the remobilization of aged 137Cs in a contaminated reservoir. J. Environ. Radioactivity 80:225-243.
Kaplan, D. I., T. G. Hinton and A. S. Knox. 2005. Cesium-137 partitioning to wetland sediments and uptake by plants. J. Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chem. 264: 393-399.
Dion, H. M., C. S. Romanek, T. G. Hinton, and P. M. Bertsch. 2005. 137Cs in floodplain sediments of the Lower Three Runs Creek on the DOE Savannah River Site. J. Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chem. 264: 481-488.
Hinton, T. G., J. E. Pinder, F. W. Whicker, L. Marsh, J. Joyner, D. Coughlin, Y. Yi, and J. Gariboldi. 2002. Comparative kinetics of cesium from whole-lake, limnocorrals, and laboratory-scale experiments. IN: The Radioecology- Ecotoxicology of Continental and Estuarine Environments (Ed: F. Brechignac), EDP Sciences Press, France.C1605- C1-610.
Abraham, J. P., F. W. Whicker, T. G. Hinton and D. J. Rowan. 2000. Inventory and spatial pattern of 137Cs in a pond: A comparison of two survey methods. J. Environ. Radioactivity 51: 157-171.
Mohler, H. J., F. W. Whicker and T. G. Hinton. 1997. Temporal trends of 137Cs in an abandoned reactor cooling reservoir. J. Environ. Radioactivity 37:251-268.
Whicker, F. W., T. G. Hinton and D. J. Niquette. 1997. Effects of a partial draw down on the dynamics of 137Cs in an abandoned reactor cooling reservoir. IN: Freshwater and Estuarine Radioecology. (Ed: Hilton, Desmet, Comans, Blust and deBetencourt) Studies in Environmental Science, Elsevier. pp. 205-214.
Hinton, T. G., F. W. Whicker, J. E. Pinder III and S. A. Ibrahim. 1992. Comparative kinetics of 47Ca, 85Sr, and 226Ra in the freshwater turtle, Trachemys scripta. J. Environ. Radioactivity 16:25-47.