Radionuclides could serve as powful proxies to determine the sedimentation rate and to indicate sedimentary enviornment change and major enviornmental events in the history. The activities of six radionuclides determined by HPGe γ Spectrometer in the core sediments of the newly created wetlands of the Yellow River Estuary were firstly reported in this paper. The sedimentation rate was estimated according to the depth profile of 137Cs. The vertical distribution of radionuclides and their relationships with TOC and the sedimentary process were investigated. The result showed that the average activities of 40K，137Cs，226Ra，228Ra，228Th and 238U in the newly created Yellow River Estuary wetlands were (687.33±54.59),(8.60±1.35)，(29.96±4.23)，(69.96±6.63)，(45.35±4.58)and(60.52±15.37)Bq/kg，respectively，among which 137Cs and 238U were higher than other areas along the coast of China. All the radionuclides showed significant positive correlations with TOC，suggesting that the present of organic matter had the potential to promote the retention of radionuclides in the sediment. The vertical variation of 137Cs was highly consistent with the average annual net epeirogenic rate of the Yellow River Estuary，according to which we estimated the average sedimentation rate of this area being 2.8cm/a. The sediment deposited very quickly at the initial stage of the estuary wetlands formation，and then the deposition rate gradually decressed to a relatively stable level. As the vertical variations of radionuclides’ specific activities may reflect major enviornmental events such as long time river cutoff，water and sediment regulation and severe flooding events during the sedimentary history，they could serve as important indicators indicating the sedimentary change characteristics.