Plutonium oxidation states in seawater

Studies of the oxidation-state distribution of plutonium in the ocean illustrate the need to characterize seawater by means of the pH, the EH, and quantitative complexation parameters. The parameters are combined in an easy-to-use equation that determines the fractions of the four oxidation states. Similar analyses have been applied to plutonium in other solutions, and the same methods can be applied to seawater. An appendix shows how to estimate and interpret the alpha coefficient for tetravalent plutonium using published information for tetravalent thorium.