Origin and age of an ongoing radioactive contamination of soils near La hague reprocessing plant based on Pu/Pu and Am/Pu current ratios and Sr and Ln(III) soil contents.

Nuclear reprocessing plants are sources of environmental contamination by gaseous or liquid discharges. Numerous radionuclides are of concern, with actinides and Sr being the most radiotoxic. Environmental radioactivity survey programs mostly use γ-spectrometry to track contaminations because γ-spectrometry is very cost effective and can be carried out on raw samples.