[ RadSafe ] Re: Feds puzzled ....Cs-137, K-40 data -ratios and uptake in biomass

[Dan McCarn]

Hi Stewart:

You are exactly correct!  After Chernobyl, one of the measures taken
in the Gomel Province, Belarus to reduce Cs uptake in crops was to add
significant amounts of K to agricultural soils.  Since
(coincidentally) there is a significant potash production facility in
Soligorsk - mined from bedded Devonian salts, the "availability" of
suitable fertilizer was not an issue. Valeri Efremenkov (from the IAEA
and the Sosny Laboratory in Minsk) wrote a couple of papers about this
years ago - perhaps in 1990-1995.

Dan ii

Dan W McCarn, Geologist
Albuquerque & Houston

On 7/18/07, stewart farber <radproject at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> The statement by George Dowell below, about uptake to plants regarding
> Cs-137 vs. K-40 in soil in the first paragraph below is not correct.
>
> Plants do not take up Cs-137 in some constant ratio of K-40/Cs-137.
>
> Cs-137  uptake is suppressed by stable K levels in soil. Higher K, lower Cs
> uptake.
>
> Cs-137 uptake is suppressed by stable Cs in soil. Higher  stable Cs, higher
> Cs-137 uptake for a given type of soil. Stable Cs in soil binds to soil Cs
> binding sites on soil particles. Fill those sites, and nuclear bomb test
> fallout and nuclear plant released carrier free Cs-137 is more readily
> available for uptake from soil to plant.
>
> Cs-137 uptake varies widely with type of soil: sand, high humus/organics,
> clay -- ordered from high to low uptake.
>
> Cs-137 interestingly in air can also be taken into plants like trees or any
> other biomass directly from the air!! Plants need K to live, and have
> evolved very neat mechanisms to take in nutrients from the air. Since Cs and
> K are chemical cogeners [being the same family in the periodic table] plants
> are fooled into trying to take in [ie: "suck"] Cs-137 from the air when they
> really are seeking and need K to grow. This mechanism of Cs-137 uptake from
> air was clearly demonstrated in Chernobyl followup studies, but the
> mechanism about K uptake from air had been well documented in the scientific
> literature before Chernobyl.
>
> Generalized weapon's test fallout areal deposition levels from one location
> to another around the US does not explain the variations in Cs-137 I
> measured in woodash, or had reported to me from labs qualified to make gamma
> spec measurements of Cs-137. The areal deposition of Cs-137 in the western
> US from all fallout including Russian open air testing of nuclear bombs and
> transport of US open air testing which circled the globe many, many times,
> is perhaps one third to one half that seen in the eastern US.
>
> However, my data shows Cs-137 levels in the few samples of Cs in woodash
> reported to me from California, that are 100 times lower than in Florida.
> Northern Florida Cs-137 was measured at 25,000 picoCuries per kg of ash
> while the deposition there is perhaps one-half to one-third that of the
> Northeastern US which showed Cs-137 of up to 20,000 picoCuries per kg of
> ash, with most samples in the Northeast between 8,000 and 15,000 picoCuries
> per kg of ash. The very low Cs-137 in California is almost certainly due to
> the very high stable K in California soil, along with low stable Cs in soils
> in the west according to the literature. So roughly equivalent areal Cs-137
> deposition in California or Florida can result in Cs-137 in biomass that is
> 100 fold different depending on local soil chemistry!! Relevant and very
> neat.
>
> As I pointed out in my note to the HPS Newsletter in 1990,  my initial
> measurements of Cs-137 in woodash from New England showed Cs-137 at 15,000
> picoCuries per kg in an ash sample from my vacation home in Warren, Vermont,
> 100 miles north of Vermont Yankee nuclear power station.
>
> At the same time, hardwood ash samples from mature hardwoods cut near
> Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power station and burned in a local person's
> woodstove were measured at 1,500 picoCuries per kg of ash --even though the
> areal deposition of weapons test fallout was essentially the same close to
> my former home in Warren, VT vs the  sample location from Vernon, VT near
> the only nuclear plant in Vermont,  100 miles to the south.
>
> Did Vermont Yankee reduce Cs-137 in the environment by a factor of 10 around
> Vernon? :-) This is what the data indicates if one is making simplistic, and
> unscientific claims like those of the Tooth Fairy Project. It could be
> argued that Vermont Yankee takes in huge amounts of air and the intake air
> filters at the plant and the exhaust air filters before filtered offgas from
> the plant remove Cs-137 from ambient air leading to Cs-137 in wood ash
> samples nearby being 10 times lower than in a "Background" area 100 miles
> away totally out of the influence of releases from the nuclear plant!!
>
> See how much fun you can have distorting a few measurements of radioactivity
> in some environmental media taken near and far from a nuclear plant.
>
> All we can say for sure based on the limited data at hand,  is that the
> operation of Vermont Yankee NPS from 1972 forward to the present has
> released such absolutely trivial amounts of Cs-137 [and even much, much
> lower trivial amounts of Sr-90 given the very large increase in Cs-137/Sr-90
> ratios in nuclear plant waste streams from the fission ratio of
> Cs-137/Sr-90 -this is another issue that is interesting, but beyond the
> scope of this comment] that levels of Cs-137 in biomass [trees] cut around a
> specific nuclear station show Cs-137 at levels 10 times lower than a
> location out of the plant's influence located 100 miles to the north. As
> Henry Gibson's character used to say [I'm showing my age] on the 60s comedy
> show Laugh In: "Veeeeeeery Interesting"
>
> Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
> Consulting Scientist
> Farber Technical Services
> 1285 Wood Ave.
> Bridgeport, CT 06604
> [203] 441-8433 [office]
> [203] 522-2817 [cell]
> email: radproject at sbcglobal.net
>
> ==================================
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geo>K0FF" <GEOelectronics at netscape.com>
> To: "stewart farber" <radproject at sbcglobal.net>; "Earley, Jack N"
> <Jack_N_Earley at RL.gov>
> Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 12:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Feds puzzled by gamma radiation higher
> thannormalnearwildfire -Cs-137, K-40 data
>
>
> > Cs has a high degree of similarity to potassium, chemically, as shown on
> > the periodic table of elements. Therefore if it is in abundance in the
> > soil, the plant will treat it as it would potassium, with the uptake in
> > the same
> > ratio as K/Cs in the soil.
> >
> > Stewart's Cs-137 in woodash report numbers make sense, since the
> > prevailing winds in Nevada (NTS) are from the west.
> >
> > An interesting report on the uptake mechanisms of soil Cs into plants can
> > be found here:
> > http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/tansleyreviews/nph113.pdf
> >
> > *Specificity* in the human body similarly directs the uptake sites of
> > certain similar chemicals and isotopes.
> > Radium is a calcium mimic for example, and radioiodines are thyroid
> > specific because they are, well....iodine.
> > Na-22 and H3 are readily absorbed as well and should be handled with that
> > in mind.
> >
> > George DowellNLNLNew London Nucleonics Lab56791 Rivere Au Sel Pl.New
> > London, MO 63459GEOelectronics at Netscape.com573-221-3418
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "stewart farber" <radproject at sbcglobal.net>
> > To: "Earley, Jack N" <Jack_N_Earley at RL.gov>
> > Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 11:09 AM
> > Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Feds puzzled by gamma radiation higher
> > thannormalnearwildfire -Cs-137, K-40 data
> >
> >
> >> Issues are very complex about what effects Cs-137 in biomass per unit
> >> deposition in soil.
> >
> >
> >
>
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-- 
Dan W McCarn