Study of soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K on plants cultivated on ex-tin mining land in Bangka Belitung, Indonesia

Abstract

Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) are of fundamental importance in measuring the environmental impact due to the presence of radioactivity in soil and agricultural crops. The present study thus to measure soil-to-plant TFs of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K on horticultural plants cultivated on ex-tin mining land in Bangka Belitung islands. There were 21 samples of 15 species and 13 families from 17 locations comprising four vegetables species, five fruits species, three staple foods species, and three others. The TFs were measured in leaves, fruit, cereal, kernel, shoot, or rhizome. The results showed that ²³⁸U and ¹³⁷Cs were almost not found in plants, whereas ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K were measured. In soursop leaf, common pepper leaf, and cassava peel, on ²²⁶Ra, the TFs for the non-edible parts, (0.42 ± 0.02; 1.05 ± 0.17; 0.32 ± 0.01 respectively) were significantly higher than soursop fruit, common pepper seed, and cassava root for the edible parts (0.01 ± 0.005; 0.29 ± 0.09; 0.04 ± 0.02 respectively).

Keywords: Crops cultivation; Natural radioactivity; Non-edible parts; Soil-to-plant transfer factor; Tin tailings.