Abstract
Long-lived radionuclides released from nuclear facilities, such as deep underground disposal facilities, could reach humans through several transfer pathways in the environment, in particular food consumption. Consequently, obtaining data on the root uptake of radionuclides to an edible part of a crop, namely the soil-to-plant transfer factor (TF), is important for long-term radiation dose assessment. Obtaining a precise TF under equilibrium is important in long-term dose assessment models to reasonably estimate radiation dose to humans. It would be better to obtain TFs under natural conditions since long-lived radionuclides remain in the environment for a long time. Moreover, safety assessment for people who live in Japan should consider rice and vegetables as critical foods.
Unfortunately, many long-lived radionuclides generated in nuclear power plants do not exist in the natural environment and there is a general lack of knowledge on their environmental behavior over decades. To fill these gaps, measurement of TF values of naturally existing elements rather than radioactive nuclides can be a powerful tool to obtain TF values under equilibrium conditions. Thus, our purpose of this study is to obtain TFs of stable elements for rice.
