Dry deposition of particulate Cs-134 to several leafy vegetable species and comparison to deposition of gaseous Radioiodine

¹ GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Radiation Protection, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany
² Present address: IAEA Laboratories, 2444 Seibersdorf, Austria
³ TU München-Weihenstephan, Chair of Vegetable Science, 85350 Freising, Germany

Abstract

The dry deposition to several leafy vegetables (endive, head lettuce, red oak leaf lettuce, spinach) was studied. Particles with attached ¹³⁴Cs were used for testing the particulate deposition, gaseous elemental ¹³¹I was the tracer for gas deposition. The particle deposition was the highest for rough and structured leafs as red oak leaf lettuce has, but as well for spinach with many open stomata. The stomatal uptake seamed to be the most important process for gas deposition, the deposition to spinach was for Radioiodine the highest as compared to all other species. The lowest deposition was always found to the closed heads of head lettuce. The difference in deposition to the various species was up to a factor 9.