Accumulation of (137)Cs by rice grown in four types of soil contaminated by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011 and 2012

Abstract

The ability to predict radiocesium transfer from soil to agricultural products is necessary for assessing management options in a radiocesium contaminated area. In this study, we evaluated the differences in transfer factors among soil samples and the differences in transfer factors between the first and the second years of contamination in rice. We employed pot experiments using four types of soils that are representative of the agricultural soils present in the Fukushima Prefecture contaminated by (137)Cs released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant after the March 2011 accident. The experiments were conducted during the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons. The geometric mean of transfer factors for brown rice and inedible rice part was 0.011 and 0.031, respectively, in 2011 and 0.0061 and 0.020, respectively, in 2012. The average decreasing rate of the transfer factor was 40% and 30% in brown rice and inedible rice part, respectively, from 2011 to 2012, presumably owing to the irreversible sorption of (137)Cs to clay minerals.

Keywords: Aging effect; Brown rice; Cesium uptake; Exchangeable radiocesium; Inedible rice parts; Transfer factor.