Effect of Potassium on Uptake of 137Cs in Food Crops Grown on Coral Soils: Annual Crops at Bikini Atoll

Stone, E R ; Robinson, W

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

关键词: Radioactivity;    70 Plasma Physics And Fusion Technology;    Crops;    Americium 241;    Food;   

DOI  :  10.2172/15002342
RP-ID  :  UCRL-LR-147596
RP-ID  :  W-7405-ENG-48
RP-ID  :  15002342

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

In 1954 a radioactive plume from the thermonuclear device code named BRAVO contaminated the principal residential islands, Eneu and Bikini, of Bikini Atoll (11{sup o} 36 minutes N; 165{sup o} 22 minutes E), now part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The resulting soil radioactivity diminished greatly over the three decades before the studies discussed below began. By that time the shorter-lived isotopes had all but disappeared, but strontium-90 ({sup 90}Sr), and cesium-137, ({sup 137}Cs) were reduced by only one half-life. Minute amounts of the long-lived isotopes, plutonium-239+240 ({sup 239+240}Pu) and americium-241 ({sup 241}Am), were present in soil, but were found to be inconsequential in the food chain of humans and land animals. Rather, extensive studies demonstrated that the major concern for human health was {sup 137}Cs in the terrestrial food chain (Robison et al., 1983; Robison et al., 1997). The following papers document results from several studies between 1986 and 1997 aimed at minimizing the {sup 137}Cs content of annual food crops. The existing literature on radiocesium in soils and plant uptake is largely a consequence of two events: the worldwide fallout of 1952-58, and the fallout from Chernobyl. The resulting studies have, for the most part, dealt either with soils containing some amount of silicate clays and often with appreciable K, or with the short-term development of plants in nutrient cultures.