[ RadSafe ] Ad: mushroom / Chernobyl

[Peter Bossew]

Dan, and others:
The attached picture was taken a few km S of Chernobyl. The mushroom 
(boletus) were actually quite OK, only a few kBq/kg d.m. 137Cs, also the 
blueberries, with some 100 Bq/kg f.m. (The blueberries are very tasty, 
by the way.)
In Austria mushroom (in particular xerocomus badius, a highly 
appreciated species) with > 30 kBq/kg d.m. can still be found in some 
regions.

I find the situation much worse in S Belarus, where local people are so 
poor that they have to survive on forest products, in areas with 3 
MBq/m2 137Cs and more.

pb



Dan McCarn wrote:
> Hi Stewart:
>
> As a sidebar to this discussion, the practice of using "potash" from
> cook stoves to fertilize backyard gardens around Chernobyl was and
> perhaps still is a common practice, but is strongly discouraged
> because of the significantly increased amount of Cs-137 in the ash.
>
> When the Sosny Labs near Minsk were evaluating the fate of Cs-137 in
> wood ash to be (possibly) used for biomass power engineering projects,
> they found that virtually all of the Cs-137 remained in the bottom
> ash.  The alternative was wildfires in the contaminated territories
> (unmanaged/uneconomic forests) that tended to loft a significant
> fraction of the ash as finely divided material in smoke plumes
> carrying a significant source term.  This still causes significantly
> elevated (up to 20X gamma background) in Minsk during the early autumn
> when forest fires are common.
>
> In the forests, most of the source term is captured "cation-exchanged"
> onto the humus layer in the soil having very high cation exchange
> capacity from 5-10 cm in depth.  The wildfires would tend to burn not
> only the trees but the forest floor as well and loft this material.  A
> person to contact at Sosny would be Alexander (Sasha) Grebenkov, who
> is still pursuing this area of research.  Valeri Goulo (IAEA), while
> he was at Sosny, continuously monitored the background radiation.
>
> Although the ingestion of mushroom caps and berries "in the zone" is
> discouraged, when I close my eyes and remember the area around the
> contaminated zones, I always see the image of an old man walking with
> a basket through the forest picking mushrooms, a common pastime in
> Central and Eastern Europe.  The French experimented with mushrooms as
> a means to remove Cs-137 from forest soils in the Chernobyl area.
>
> Best regards!
>
> Dan ii
>
> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
> Albuquerque & Houston
>
> On 7/18/07, stewart farber <radproject at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> Dan,
>> Thanks for the references to adding K to agricultural soils to reduce 
>> Cs-137
>> uptake in actual practice near Chenobyl. I'll add that to my files on 
>> the
>> issue of Cs-137 and K uptake to soil.
>>
>> Of additional interest, the NRC reg guides used to calculate doses to 
>> the
>> public near nuclear facilities used to specify a transfer factor of 
>> 0.01 for
>> transfer of Cs-137 from soil to plant.  From the levels seen in my 
>> wood ash
>> study, it can be inferred that this factor can range from 0.01 up to 
>> 0.5 and
>> even more.  When wood is burned in a home fireplace of woodstove, the
>> wood/ash ratio is about 100. Thus the Cs-137 in wood [biomass or any 
>> other
>> plant] for a measured level of 10,000 picoCuries per kg of woodash 
>> would be
>> about 100 picoCuries per kg of wood [assuming no loss of Cs in 
>> combustion]
>>
>> In 1991 in most places in the Northeast soil averaged quite 
>> approximately
>> 300 picoCuries per kg of soil. So to get 100 picoCuries per kg of 
>> wood from
>> 300 picoCuries of Cs-137 in soil indicates a Biv factor [nomenclature of
>> R.G. 1.109] for Cs-137  [pCi kg plant/pCi kg soil] equal to 0.33 not 
>> 0.01 as
>> specified in R.G. 1.109. These issues of much higher soil to plant 
>> transfer
>> factors [ by factors of 30 to 80 or more] for Cs-137 vs. R.G. 1.109 
>> have not
>> been explored in any type of field study, and are merely inferences 
>> based on
>> the limited data at hand. A measurement of 25,000 picoCuries per kg 
>> of wood
>> ash in Northern Florida, with 100/1 wood to ash ratio, and soil 
>> levels of
>> 250 pCi/kg of soil equates to  a transfer factor from soil to plant of
>> 1.0 -- 100 times higher than the 0.01 that used to be specified in R.G.
>> 1.109
>>
>> Stewart Farber
>>
>> 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: "Dan McCarn" <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
>> To: "stewart farber" <radproject at sbcglobal.net>
>> Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:08 PM
>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Re: Feds puzzled ....Cs-137, K-40 data 
>> -ratios and
>> uptake in biomass
>>
>>
>> > 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.
>> >> >
>>
>>
>>

-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

TP 441, Via Fermi 1 
21020 Ispra (VA) 
ITALY 
  
Tel. +39 0332 78 9109 
Fax. +39 0332 78 5466 
Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

WWW: http://rem.jrc.cec.eu.int 
  
"The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission."


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