Article

A comparative study of ⁴⁰K versus ¹³⁷Cs uptake as chemical analogs by vegetable plants at different concentrations of these nuclides in soil near the 30-km Chernobyl zone

Institute of Radiobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 4 Fedyuninskogo St., 246007 Gomel, Belarus

^* gaponen@imaph.bas-net.by

Received: 1 February 2015
Accepted: 16 November 2015

Abstract

¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K uptake by vegetable plants was examined in a number of places in Belarus located at the outer perimeter of the 30-km Chernobyl zone. Differences in the uptake of ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs by plant species were not found to be related to the radionuclide content in the soil, but are essentially related to plant features. Vegetable plants were found to accumulate ⁴⁰K more actively than ¹³⁷Cs. For 40K and ¹³⁷Cs, the ratio of the nuclide content in plants to their content in soil shows a tendency to decrease with increasing nuclide concentration in soil.