Download or read book The relationship between concentrations of plutonium and americium in soil interstitial waters and their uptake by plants written by F R (Francis) Livens and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large soil cores (23.5 cm diameter), containing elevated concentrations of plutonium and americium derived from fuel reprocessing effluents (typically 2000-3000 but up to 10000 Bq kg-1 Pu-239, Pu-240 and 3000-5000 but up to 15 000 Bq kg-1 Am-241), were collected from three zones of a salt marsh in west Cumbria. The standing vegetation was removed, the cores placed in a greenhouse and the vegetation allowed to regrow. After 2 months, the regrowth was harvested and the amount of plutonium and americium taken up determined. These data, combined with data from earlier, in-situ sampling of soil pore waters and from analysis of soil cores, allow estimation of soil-plant transfers. If these are expressed simply as the ratio of the activity concentrations in the plant tissues to those in the soil, the values lie in the range 10(-5)-10(-6), comparable to those found by many other workers. However, the ratio of concentrations in plant tissues to those in the soil solution is much higher; 40-110 1 kg-1 for Pu-239, Pu-240 and 210-640 1 kg-1 for Am-241. There appears to be a consistent relationship between soil-plant transfer and the in-situ solid- solution distribution coefficient (Rd).