Pascale Henner

Translocation of 125I, 75Se and 36Cl to wheat edible parts following wet foliar contamination under field conditions.

Apart from radiocaesium and radiostrontium, there have been few studies on the foliar transfer of radionuclides in plants. Consequently, specific translocation factor (ftr) values for (129)I, (79)Se and (36)Cl are still missing from the IAEA reference databases. The translocation of short - lived isotopes, (125)I and (75)Se, and of (36)Cl to wheat grain were measured under field conditions following acute and chronic wet foliar contamination at various plant growth stages in the absence of leaching caused by rain. The translocation factors ranged from 0.02% to 1.1% for (125)I (a value similar to Sr), from 0.1% to 16.5% for (75)Se, and from 1% to 14.9% for (36)Cl. Both (36)Cl and (75)Se were as mobile as Cs. The phenomenological analysis showed that each element displayed a specific behavior. Iodide showed the lowest apparent mobility because of its preferential fixation in or on the leaves and a significant amount probably volatilized. Selenite internal transfer was significant and possibly utilized the sulphur metabolic pathway. However bio - methylation of selenite may have led to increased volatilization. Chloride was very mobile and quickly diffused throughout the plant. In addition, the analysis underlined the importance of plant growth responses to annual variations in weather conditions that can affect open field experiments because plant growth stage played a major role in ftr values dispersion. The chronic contamination results suggested that a series of acute contamination events had an additive effect on translocated elements. The highest translocation value obtained for an acute contamination event was shown to be a good conservative assessment of chronic contamination if data on chronic contamination translocation are lacking. The absence of rain leaching during the experiment meant that this investigation avoided potential radionuclide transfer by the roots, which also meant that radionuclide retention on or in the leaves was maximized. This study was therefore able to obtain accurate translocation factors, which are probably among the highest that could be recorded.

Translocation of 125I, 75Se and 36Cl to edible parts of radish, potato and green bean following wet foliar contamination under field conditions

Specific translocation factor values (ftr) for (129)I, (79)Se and (36)Cl following foliar transfer are still missing from the IAEA reference databases. The translocation of the short-lived isotopes, (125)I, (75)Se, and (36)Cl, to radish, potato and green bean edible parts was measured under field conditions following acute and chronic wet foliar contamination at various plant growth stages in the absence of leaching caused by rain. The translocation factors obtained for (125)I ranged from 0.8 to 2.6% for radish, from 0.1 to 2.3% for potato and from 0.1 to 2.6% for bean. The translocation factors obtained for (75)Se ranged from 6.3 to 21% for radish, from 1.6 to 32.6% for potato and from 7.7 to 22.8% for bean (values similar to Cs or even higher). The translocation factors obtained for (36)Cl were close to those for (75)Se and ranged from 4.3 to 28.8% for radish, from 0.5 to 31.5% for potato and from 4.3 to 16.3% for bean. Iodide showed the lowest apparent mobility because of its preferential fixation in or on the leaves and a significant amount was probably volatilized. Selenite internal transfer was significant and possibly followed the sulfur metabolic pathway. Chloride was very mobile and quickly diffused throughout the plant. The translocation factors varied with the growth stage and depended on the development state of the edible tissue and its associated sink strength for nutrients and assimilates. For radish, translocation was high during the early vegetative stages. For potato, wheat and bean, a major peak in translocation was seen during the flowering growth stage and the concomitant growth of potato tubers. An additive effect of successive contamination events on translocated elements was shown in radish but not in bean and potato. The highest translocation value obtained for an acute contamination event was shown to be an adequate, conservative indicator of chronic contamination in absence of specific values. Due to the absence of rain leaching during the experiment this study probably provides translocation values among the highest that could be recorded.

Foliar interception of radionuclides in dry conditions: a meta-analysis using a Bayesian modeling approach

Uncertainty on the parameters that describe the transfer of radioactive materials into the (terrestrial) environment may be characterized thanks to datasets such as those compiled within International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents. Nevertheless, the information included in these documents is too poor to derive a relevant and informative uncertainty distribution regarding dry interception of radionuclides by the pasture grass and the leaves of vegetables. In this paper, 145 sets of dry interception measurements by the aboveground biomass of specific plants were collected from published scientific papers. A Bayesian meta-analysis was performed to derive the posterior probability distributions of the parameters that reflect their uncertainty given the collected data. Four competing models were compared in terms of both fitting performances and predictive abilities to reproduce plausible dry interception data. The asymptotic interception factor, applicable whatever the species and radionuclide to the highest aboveground biomass values (e.g. mature leafy vegetables), was estimated with the best model, to be 0.87 with a 95% credible interval (0.85, 0.89).

Soil-to-plant transfer factors of radioactive Ca, Sm and Pd isotopes: critical assessment of the use of analogies to derive best-estimates from existing non-specific data

(45)Ca, (151)Sm and (107)Pd are three radionuclides present in low to intermediate in activity radioactive wastes for which no soil-to-plant Transfer Factors (TF) values are available to be used in biosphere models for Ecological Risk Assessment. In the absence of specific radioecological studies, this work reviews and analyzes the existing literature for stable isotopes of Pd, Sm and Ca in order to derive best estimates for TF values that could be used as Transfer Factors. Alternative methods of extrapolation are also critically assessed. The values have been classified according to climatic zone, plant class and soil type for each element. The overall geometric mean TF values (for all plants and conditions) was calculated as 8.4E-02 for Pd, for which the value of radioRu in TRS-472 is also available. The mean TF for Sm was 4.2E-04. This value was lower than the TF values for radioactive Ce that are proposed as alternative values for Sm in TRS-472. The former may be relevant for long term assessments and the latter could possibly used to describe the short term (151)Sm post-release behaviour. The mean value for Ca is 2.3E-01 but varies considerably among plants of a given class due to the variety of plant Ca uptake behaviors. Alternatively, to limit this variability, Ca data content for dry plant matter, as analyzed using the phylogenetic method, could be used to derive TF values if the conservation of isotopic ratio of (45)Ca to stable Ca in soils and in plants hypothesis is taken into account. The TF for Ca in sub-tropical zones is 10-fold lower than in temperate zones. There is a lot of data available about exchangeable Ca in soil, which mean that we could calculate an available TF. The analysis shows that Ca bioavailability is also a key factor within transfer.