Soil-to-plant transfer of radiocaesium for selected tropical plant species in Bangladesh

Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TF) of radiocaesium (137Cs) were determined under field condition for grassy vegetation grown in Bangladesh at contaminated land in the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) campus. TF values for rice, grass and grassy/root vegetations grown in the same type of soil were also measured under pot condition. TF values of 137Cs for grassy vegetation (2.4 × 10−2-4.2 × 10−2 with an average of 3.1 × 10−2 ± 0.005) obtained under field condition were slightly lower than the values for grass and grassy/root vegetations (2.9 × 10−2-6.6 × 10−2 with an average of 4.8 × 10−2 ± 0.01 for grass and grassy vegetations and 2.3 × 10−2-5.6 × 10−2 with an average of 4.0 × 10−2 ± 0.009 for root vegetations, respectively) obtained under pot condition. However, TF values (9.0 × 10−3-2.6 × 10−2 with an average of 1.9 × 10−2 ± 0.004) obtained for rice were about a factor of 4 lower than the values obtained for grass and grassy/root vegetations. When the properties of the AERE soils as input parameters were used in the soil-plant transfer model of Absalom, the estimated TF values (4.5 × 10−2-6.7 × 10−2 with an average of 5.3 × 10−2 ± 0.006) were consistent with the measured values obtained for grass and grassy vegetations under pot condition, however, the model overestimates the TF values for rice.