Stable elements - as a key to predict radionuclide transport in forest ecosystems

¹ National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Anagawa 4-9-1, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan
² Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Institute for Radiation Hygiene, 85764 Oberschleissheim, Germany
³ National Environmental Protection Agency, Via Vitaliano Brancati, 00144 Roma, Italy
⁴ Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, 3 Clonskeagh Square, 3 Clonskeagh Road, 14 Dublin, Ireland
⁵ Radiobiological Institute, University of Munich, Schillerstrasse 42, 80336 Munich, Germany
⁶ Authority for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK), Laippatie 4, 00880 Finland
⁷ Arthur D. Little Inc., 20 Acorn Park, Cambridge, MA 02140, U.S.A.
⁸ Forest Institute of NAS Belarus, 246654 Gomel, Belarus

Abstract

As the chemical behavior of radiocesium is expected to be almost identical to that of stable Cs, analyses of stable Cs and related stable elements should be useful to understand the long-term behavior of radiocesium and its equilibrium distribution in forest ecosystems. In this study, the concentrations of stable Cs and related alkali and alkaline earth elements in mushrooms, plants and soils were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Samples were collected in forests with different contamination levels in Japan. Germany, Finland, Italy, Ireland and Belarus. Vertical distributions in soils, and concentrations in mushrooms and plants were summarized for radiocesium and related stable elements. Relationship between radiocesium and stable Cs in mushrooms and plants, and transfer from soil to vegetation were also discussed. The results indicated that the ratio between radiocesium and stable Cs is useful for judging the equilibrium of deposited radiocesium in different parts of a forest ecosystem. The stable Cs analyses might be also useful to predict the long-term radiocesium contamination of mushrooms and plants.