FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT IN SAKHALIN REGION, RUSSIA, PART 2: 137Cs AND 134Cs IN GRASSLAND VEGETATION

• Published in: Radiacionnaâ gigiena Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 7 - 19
• Main Authors: Ramzaev, V. P., Barkovsky, A. N., Gromov, A. V., Ivanov, S. A., Kaduka, M. V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Saint-Petersburg Research Institute of Radiation Hygiene after Professor P.V. Ramzaev 12-07-2018
• Subjects: 134cs; 137cs; tag; агрегированный коэффициент переноса; глобальные выпадения; курильские острова; луга; растительность; сахалинская область; фукусимская авария
• ISSN: 1998-426X; 2409-9082
• DOI: 10.21514/1998-426X-2018-11-2-7-19

Samples of vegetation (vascular plants) were collected at 14 grasslands on Kunashir, Iturup, Urup and Paramushir Islands in August–September 2012. All surveyed grasslands were virgin lands with respect to Fukushima fallout. Four plots were used as pastures for cattle in 2012. About 1 kg of green vegetation (mixed grass-forb crop) was taken from each of 13 plots. Seven samples of wormwood (Artemisia sp.) and three samples of Kuril dwarf bamboo (Sasa sp.) of the same mass were collected for comparison. A density of the above ground biomass was estimated at one of the plots. Activities of
134
Cs and
137
Cs radionuclides were determined by direct γ-ray spectrometry method using HP-germanium detectors. Inventories of
134
Cs and
137
Cs in the top 20 cm layer of soil were estimated by the authors earlier for each of these 14 plots based of the soil samples analysis. Caesium-134, a marker of Fukushima fallout, was determined in 18 of 24 vegetation samples. Caesium-137 activity was quantified in all of 24 samples. The activity concentration of the radionuclides in plants (wet weight) ranged from <0.05 Bq kg
−1
to 1.6 Bq kg
-1
for
134
Cs and from 0.06 Bq kg
−1
to 5.8 Bq kg
-1
for
137
Cs. About 2/5 (median = 41%, n = 18) of the total activity of
137
Cs in plants was associated with the Fukushima accident. The soil-to-plant aggregated transfer coefficient (T
ag
) values in mixed grass-forb crop ranged from <0.2 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
to 11 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
for
134
Cs and from 0.08 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
to 3.3 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
for
137
Cs. The T
ag
values for
134
Cs were statistically significantly higher compared to the Tag values for 137Cs. The median T
ag
for
134
Cs in mixed grass-forb crop decreased in the 2011–2012 period by a factor of about two: from 12 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
to 6.6 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
. The ecological half-time, Teco, of
134
Cs in the plants was approximately one year. In 2011–2012, the median T
ag
for pre-Fukushima
137
Cs in mixed grass-forb crop was estimated as 0.12 × 10
–3
m
2
kg
-1
. This value is lower by a factor of 100 and 50 compared to the median values of T
ag
that were deduced for Fukushima-derived radiocaesium in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The radiocaesium T
ag
values for Sasa sp. and Artemisia sp. agreed with those for mixed grass-forb crop. At grasslands with the aboveground biomass density of 1 kg m
–2
and the T
ag
of 6 × 10
–3
m
2
kg-1 for
134
Cs, the contribution of the vegetation contamination to total inventory of the radionuclide did not exceed 1%. For
137
Cs, this contribution was less than 0.1%.