Load of soil, food, animal feed and biological material with radioactive residues

Abstract

The uses of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes (nuclear weapon testing, nuclear reactor accidents, industrial and medical use of radioactive compounds) and application of phosphate mineral fertilizers in agricultural production lead to a substantial environmental contamination. Land contaminated with radionuclides represents the first link in the food chain and results in radioactive contamination of crop and livestock production. The activity concentrations of radionuclides gamma emitters were determined using low-level gamma spectrometry on high resolution HPGe detector system produced by ORTEC. The concentrations of thorium and uranium in all the samples were analysed by a technique of inductively coupled plasma using mass spectrometry (ICP-MS 7700, Agilent). The samples of the soil, foodstuff (meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, fish, honey), animal feed (complete mix, concentrated premix feed, phosphate mineral feed, fish meal) and biomaterials (internal organs, urine) were examined. The results revealed the presence of the following natural radionuclides: K-40, Ra- 226, Th-232, U-235 and U-238. The presence of Cs-137, that is, an anthropogenic (artificially produced) radionuclide has also been confirmed. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that the highest concentration of activity originates from natural radionuclide of potassium- 40 in all tested samples. Also, in this study, the examined content of the tested radionuclides in different environmental samples provides interesting additional information for approximate calculation of the average input of radioactive residues