Root uptake of radionuclides following their acute soil depositions during the growth of selected food crops.

Greenhouse experiments were performed to investigate the root uptake of radionuclides following their acute soil deposition during the growth of several food crops. For this purpose, the soil under the standing plants was contaminated without any direct contamination of their stems or leaves. The intention of this design was to differentiate foilar uptake and root uptake subsequent to a radionuclide deposition during the vegetation period. Soil-to-plant transfer of a radionuclide was quantified with its aggregated transfer factors specified for the time periods from deposition until harvest (T(ag)(a), m(2)kg(-1)). Deposition time-dependent T(ag)(a) values of Mn, Co, Sr and Cs for selected crop species were measured in an acid sandy soil. For rice and Chinese cabbage, HTO experiments were also carried out using this soil. Particularly for rice, experiments with various paddy soils were also performed for (90)Sr and (137)Cs. The obtained T(ag)(a) values varied considerably with the radionuclides, plant species, and times of deposition. Recommendations about, and limitations in, the use of the T(ag)(a) values were discussed.

An anticoincidence-shielded gamma-ray spectrometer for analysis of low level environmental radionuclides.

We developed an ultralow-level background gamma-ray spectrometer, using active and passive shield devices at the same time. Cosmic-ray-induced background is suppressed by means of active shield devices consisting of plastic scintillating plates of 50mm thick and anti-coincidence electronic system. The observed background rate was 0.34 s(-1) (=0.12s(-1) per 100 cm(3) Ge volume) for energy regions between 50 and 3000 ke V. The detection efficiency curve for 10(3)ml Marinelli beaker samples is obtained over all the energy regions. The advantages of the method are demonstrated by measuring the activity of 137Cs in powdered milk sample prepared without taking any chemical procedure. The MDA for 137Cs is estimated to be (17+/-1.7)mBq at a confidence level of 95% and it is about a factor of 10 lower than the MDA obtained from the previous cryostat assembly with 10-cm thick lead shielding.