Transfer factors of 90Sr and 137Cs from paddy soil to the rice plant in Taiwan

Activity distribution of Sr-90, Cs-137 and K-40 in rice plant collected in one location of Taiwan were measured using radiochemical analysis and gamma-ray spectrometry in 1982. About 51% of Sr-90 in rice plant was found to be accumulatlated in leaves (old: 28%, young: 23%, but Cs-137 and K-40 were found to be concentrated in the growing parts of the rice plant such as rachis, fine hull and young leaves. Besides, another rice and soil samples of 12 locations in Taiwan were also collected in 1981 for the determination of the transfer factors of Sr-90 and Cs-137 from soil to the edible parts of the rice plant. The transfer factors from soil to the coarse hull, fine hull, brown rice and polished rice were determined to be 0.30 +/- 0.06 (0.09-0.76), 0.45) +/- 0.09 (0.09-1.06), 0.086 +/- 0.017 (0.027-0.222) and 0.037 +/- 0.009 (0.005-0.088) for Sr-90 and 0.38 +/- 0.04 (0.12-0.63), 0.85 +/- 0.13 (0.19-1.58), 0.14 +/- 0.02 (0.07-0.27), 0.097 +/- 0.014 (0.030-0.188) for Cs-137, respectively. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.