The radiochemical and chemical characterization of marine sediments taken up from Cuba's northern and southern littoral

Radioactive contamination factor (RCF) has been proposed as a suitable unit to measure the magnitude of radioactive contamination at global scale, caused mainly by more than 2000 nuclear explosion tests performed during the 1945–1965 period. It is obtained as percentage of contaminant radioactivity (137Cs) compared to natural radioactivity (40K), both expressed in Bq/g of marine sediments conditioned in Marinelli containers and detected in both NaI(Tl) and HPGe detectors. Till now, some results have been obtained from samples taken up in Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coast. At present, additional results were obtained in samples from Cuba North and South coast, including nuclear tracks from α particles. Also, the total oxides content and trace metal content were determined by WD-XRF and ICP-MS respectively These results have been as clear and consistent that previous ones, and it seems to confirm that proposed method is simple and suitable to be enlarged to some other areas of the planet.