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Factors Affecting Radionuclide Availability to Vegetables Grown at Los Alamos¹

ABSTRACT

A field study was conducted in 1977 on ^{238, 239}Pu and ¹³⁷Cs availability to zucchini squash (Curcurbita melopepo, hybrid seneca) and green bush beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, Landreths stringless) grown under home-garden conditions in an area at Los Alamos National Laboratory used for treated radioactive liquid waste disposal. Radionuclide concentrations were measured as a function of tissue type, height above the soil, fertilization regime, and for the squash, food-cleansing procedures. Analysis of variance procedures were used to analyze the data.

Ratios of the concentration of a radionuclide in oven-dried vegetation to dry soil ranged from 0.0004 to 0.116 for the Pu isotopes, and from 0.051 to 0.255 for ¹³⁷Cs. Fertilization with cattle manure reduced the Pu concentration ratios by 30% and ¹³⁷Cs by 50%. Vegetative parts sampled within 20 cm of the ground surface were contaminated about four times as much as those parts growing further from the ground surface. About 65% of the contamination was removed by washing, indicating the presence of surficial contamination. The 50-year radiation dose commitment to humans consuming vegetables from the garden plot would be less than 0.05 mrem and would be due almost entirely to ¹³⁷Cs.

Key Words: radiation • fertilizer • soil splash-up

¹ Research funded under Contract No. W-7405-ENG-36 between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545.

² Biometrician, radiation ecologist, and health physicist, respectively.

Received for publication June 23, 1980.