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Comparative Uptake of Actinides by Plants and Rats from the Shoreline of a Radioactive Pond¹

ABSTRACT

To compare the bioaccumulation of several actinide elements by plants and rats from a contaminated pond shoreline, concentrations of ²³³U, ²³⁸U, ²⁴¹Am, ²⁴⁴Cm, and ²³⁹Pu were measured radiochemically in shoreline sediment, emergent macrophytes, cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus), and soil and fescue grass (Festuca sp.) collected 3–5 m away from the shoreline, of a former low-level liquid radioactive waste pond. The relative extractability of actinides from the shoreline sediment using 1M HNO₃ and 0.01M HCl was U > Am = Cm > Pu. Actinide concentrations in shoreline plants, expressed as geometric means, were 2–150 times greater than in fescue collected away from the pond shoreline. Concentrations of actinides in rat gastrointestinal tracts were greater than or equal to concentrations in shoreline plants. From a comparison of plant/sediment and rat-carcass/sediment or rat-carcass/plant concentration ratios, the conclusion is that the relative uptake of actinides by plants and rats from the pond shoreline was Pu < Am Cm < ²³³U = ²³⁸U.

Key Words: biological transport • food chains • radioecology • concentration ratios • sediments

¹ Research sponsored by the Office of Health and Environmental Research, U.S. Department of Energy, under contract W-7405-eng-26 with Union Carbide Corp. Pub. no. 1786. Environ. Sci. Div., Oak Ridge Natl. Lab., Oak Ridge, TN 37830.

² Research Associate, Environ. Sci. Div., ORNL.

Received for publication October 20, 1980.