During the years after a nuclear accident, the bioavailability
and environmental mobility of radiocesium declines
markedly, resulting in large changes in contamination of
foodstuffs, vegetation, and surface waters. Predicting such
changes is crucial to the determination of potential
doses to affected populations and therefore to the
implementation of radiological countermeasures. We
have analyzed 77 data sets of radiocesium (137Cs) activity
concentrations in milk, vegetation, and surface waters
after the Chernobyl accident. Our results show that the
rate of decline in 137Cs during the years after Chernobyl is
remarkably consistent in all three ecosystem components,
having a mean effective half-life, T
eff ≈ 2 years. By comparing
changes in 137Cs availability with rates of diffusion of 40K
(a close analogue) into the lattice of an illitic clay () we have,
for the first time, directly linked changes in the environmental
availability of 137Cs to fixation processes at a mechanistic
level. These changes are consistent with declines in the
exchangeable fraction of 137Cs in soils (2,
3).
The distribution and behavior of Cs in the soil-plant systems at some upland sites in Northeastern Italy, Scotland, and Norway have been investigated. From the limited range of samples taken, there appears to be no dominant physicochemical control on the plant availability of Cs. The presence of micaceous minerals or illitic clays does not significantly inhibit Cs uptake, either because of recycling in the organic surface horizons or because of clay-organic complex formation. Lower plants (bryophytes and lichens) show the highest Cs accumulation. Of the higher plants, ericaceous species take up Cs more than the others.
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