Radionuclides and Heavy Metals Concentrations at the Seabed of NW Piraeus, Greece

Abstract

The coastal area of Piraeus is an environmentally aggravated region since many decades due to persistent pollution sources as the international port of Piraeus, a coastal fertilizers plant, the Athens sewage outfall and the industrial zone of Eleusis Bay. Recent sediment samples from the seabed of NW Salamina strait (upper Saronikos Gulf) were collected and analyzed for radionuclides and heavy metals composition. Measurements of 22 samples were performed including gralunometrical analyses using wet sieving treatment, radiological measurements using high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry and determination of main heavy metals concentrations using the XRF technique. The activity concentrations of all radionuclides exhibited values expected in natural sediments, while the heavy metals concentrations are locally far above the sediment quality guidelines values. The most contaminated area is the small harbor of the ex fertilizers plant at Sfageion Bay, where discrepancy from the linear correlation between the unsupported210Pb with the trace Pb is indicative of the prior intensive pollution. The measured activity concentrations of 137Cs combined with these of naturally occurring radionuclides were also used to estimate the sedimentological texture of the studied region.