A methodological framework for selecting an optimal sediment source within a littoral cell.

One of the most used measures to counteract coastal erosion is beach nourishment. It has advantages with respect to the use of rigid structures that sometimes entail non desired impacts on the surrounding areas. However, beach nourishments are often unsuccessful, requiring frequent refills due to the use of sediments that are not suitable.

Isolation of U and Pu from seawater samples and its determination by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.

In this work we present and evaluate a radiochemical procedure optimised for the analysis of U and Pu in seawater samples by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). The method is based on Fe(OH) co-precipitation of actinides and uses TEVA® and UTEVA® extraction chromatography resins in a simplified way for the final U and Pu purification. In order to improve the performance of the method, the radiochemical yields are analysed in 1 to 10L seawater volumes using alpha spectrometry (AS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS).

Managing coastal environments under climate change: Pathways to adaptation.

This paper deals with the question of how to manage vulnerable coastal systems so as to make them sustainable under present and future climates. This is interpreted in terms of the coastal functionality, mainly natural services and support for socio-economic activities. From here we discuss how to adapt for long term trends and for short terms episodic events using the DPSIR framework.

Reassessment of 239Pu on planchets from human urine samples at ultra-trace levels using Aridus-ICPSFMS and AMS.

New analytical methods developed at the facilities here, based on two ultra-sensitive mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometer with a desolvator system (Aridus-ICP-SFMS) and accelerator MS (AMS), have been applied in this work for the reassessment of (239)Pu in alpha spectrometry (AS) planchets corresponding to spiked human urine samples. The obtained (239)Pu minimum detectable activities (MDAs) values by Aridus-ICP-SFMS and AMS were 3 fg (∼6.92 µBq) and 0.

An easy method to determine 210Po and 210Pb by alpha spectrometry in marine environmental samples.

Two 210Po measurements by alpha spectrometry are made in two different aliquots separated by sufficient time for the growth of 210Po from the 210Pb content to be significant, as a difference from other methods that prepare consecutively, the two sources from the same aliquot. The main advantage is that this method is more rigorous than others, as it avoids possible error sources in the radiochemical procedure and takes care of uncertainties and their propagation. Analyses of bivalve samples have validated the method.