Objective
Several sites in Greece with a high degree of contamination were selected and samples were taken of the main soil types, at various depths, and of the cultivated or indigenous plants grown on them. The physical and chemical parameters of the soil samples along with the radionuclide concentration in the soil and plant samples were determined. The soil data indicate that the caesium-137 content increases with decreasing pH values, with an increase in the amount of clay or with increasing cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soils. The plant data indicate that the contamination of grain or seed with caesium-137 is much lower than the contamination of plant material. The relation between concentration ratio (CR) and soil properties shows a trend for the CR to increase with decreasing pH, percent clay content and CEC. In the case of perennial plants (fruit trees), the data show exponentially declining contamination levels with a biological half life of 0.7 years.
A greenhouse experiment was performed to study soil to plant transfer factors for strontium-85 and cerium-141 for a variety of plant types and soil types. In both cases it was found that the CR values for the edible parts of plants were much lower than for the rest of the plant. Also, the data showed a trend for CR to increase with decreasing pH, percent clay content and CEC.
A laboratory study was undertaken to investigate the translocation of the radiosotopes caesium-134 and cerium-141 within undisturbed soil columns using various soil types. It was found that cerium-141 was more mobile than caesium-134 and that, although 95% of the amount of isotope added was held in the top 10 cm of the soil, small but traceable amounts were determined at a depth of 70 cm.
THE BEHAVIOUR OF LONG LIVED RADIONUCLIDES IN SOIL-PLANT SYSTEMS HAS BEEN STUDIED MAINLY IN COUNTRIES HAVING A NUCLEAR POWER PROGRAM OR IN THOSE WHICH HAVE BEEN CONFRONTED OR AFFECTED IN THE PAST BY INTENSE NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING. HOWEVER, THE EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT NECESSITATES A SERIES OF INVESTIGATIONS UNDER VARYING ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS (CLIMATIC, EDAPHIC, VEGETATIVE) AND CULTURAL PRACTICES. THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY WITH ITS CHARACTERISTIC CLIMAT (E.G. HIGH TEMPERATURES, ABNORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL), EDAPHIC AND VEGETATION FEATURES SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN SUCH AN INVESTIGATION PROGRAM.
THE TRANSFER RATIO OF VARIOUS RADIONUCLIDES FROM SOIL TO PLANTS HAS BEEN FOUND TO BE AFFECTED BY SOIL PROPERTIES, PLANT SPECIES AND POSSIBLY PLANT VARIETY, FERTILIZERS USED, ETC. FROM THE SOIL PROPERTIES, MECHANICAL COMPOSITION, STRUCTURE OF THE SOIL, KIND AND AMOUNT OF CLAY MINERALS, PH, CACO3 CONTENT, EXCHANGABLE K AND CA, CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY AND ORGANIC MATTER CONTENT ARE AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT. THE INTERACTION AMONG THE ABOVE PROPERTIES IN RELATION TO CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES DETERMINE TO A GREAT EXTENT THE STATUS OF THE RADIONUCLIDES IN THE SOIL SYSTEM, THEIR AVAILABILITY AND UPTAKE BY THE GROWING PLANTS CREATING THUS THE CONDITIONS FOR DIFFERENT SOIL-PLANT RATIOS.
THE PROPOSED WORK AIMS AT GATHERING AND CORRELATING DATA RELATED TO THE FALLOUT EFFECTS AS THESE HAVE BEEN ALREADY PASSED FROM THE INITIAL STAGE OF SURFACE CONTAMINATION TO THE SOIL-PLANT SYSTEM UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ONE YEAR CLIMATIC AND CULTIVATION CHANGES. FOR THIS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED, REGIONS WHICH PRESENT HIGH DEGREE OG CONTAMINATION WITH CS-137 AND CS-134, ACCORDING TO THE GENERAL SURVEY OF MEASUREMENTS, WILL BE SELECTED. IN THE MAIN SOIL TYPES OF THESE REGIONS SEASONAL SAMPLING OF SOIL TO VARIOUS DEPTHS (ACCORDING TO PROFILE DIFFERENTIATION OR LAYER ARRANGEMENT) AND SIMULTANEOUS SAMPLING OF CULTIVATED AND/OR INDIGENOUS PLANTS, GROWN ON THE SELECTED SOIL TYPES, WILL BE MADE DURING THE GROWING SEASON OF THE PLANTS. THE SOIL AND PLANT SAMPLES WILL BE COUNTED FOR CS-137 AND CS-134 AND ANALYSED CHEMICALLY. THE DATA WILL BE CORRELATED AND THE SOIL TO PLANT TRANSFER FACTORS WILL BE CALCULATED.
FURTHER STUDIES UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS, IN THE GREENHOUSE AND THE LABORATORY, WILL BE COMPLEMENTARY TO THE EXTENSIVE FIELD WORK. IN THESE STUDIES THE SOIL TO PLANT TRANSFER FACTOR OF OTHER RADIONUCLIDES, AND PARTICULARLY OF STRONTIUM, WILL BE EXAMINED ON SELECTED SOIL TYPES (VARIABLE TEXTURE, PH, CALCUM CONTENT, BASE SATURATION) AND SPECIFIED CROPS (MAIN VEGETABLE CROPS). LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS WITH SAMPLES FROM THESE SOIL TYPES, INCLUDING EXPERIMENTS WITH UNDISTURBED SOIL COLUMNS, WILL ADD INFORMATION REGARDING THE BEHAVIOUR OF THESE RADIONUCLIDES WITHIN THE SOIL PROFILE (FIXATION, TRANSLOCATION, AVAILABILITY) AS AFFECTED BY THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE SOIL.
THE OVERALL DATA OBTAINED WILL BE ANALYSED AND THE APPROPRIATE TRANSFER FACTORS WILL BE DETERMINED. THE DATA WILL ALSO BE USED TO VALIDATE AND IMPROVE THE EXISTING MODELS.
QUANTIFICATION OF THE TRANSFER FACTORS' UNCERTAINTIES WILL BE ESTIMATED. THE METHODOLOGY WILL BE BASED ON A GENERALIZED VERSION OF BAYESIAN ANALYSIS.
THE MAIN STEPS OF THE WORK ARE SPECIFIED AS FOLLOWS:
A. SELECTION OF REGIONS WITH HIGH DEGREE OF CONTAMINATION.
B. SELECTION, ACCORDING THE EXISTING SOIL MAPS OR UPON SURVEYING, OF THE MAIN AGRICULTURAL SOIL TYPES ON THE SPECIFIED AREAS.
C. SAMPLING OF THE SOIL:
1. TO VARIOUS DEPTHS TO FOLLOW SEASONAL VARIABILITY OF RADIONUCLIDES IN SOIL
2. WITH THE UNDISTURBED COLUMN TECHNIQUE FOR THE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION
3. TO HAVE APPROPRIATE AMOUNTS OF SOIL SAMPLES FROM THE SELECTED SOIL TYPES FOR THE GREENHOUSE EXPERIMENTS.
D. SIMULTANEOUS (WITH C.1.) SAMPLING OF CULTIVATED AND/OR INDIGENOUS PLANTS GROWN ON THE SELECTED SOIL TYPES.
E. ESTABLISHMENT AND CARE OF THE GREENHOUSE AND THE LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences soil sciences edaphology
- engineering and technology other engineering and technologies nuclear engineering
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture vegetable growing
- natural sciences chemical sciences nuclear chemistry radiation chemistry
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Coordinator
15310 ATHINAI
Greece
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