RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS IN AQUATIC AND TERRESTRIAL ORGANISMS EXPOSED TO REACTOR EFFLUENT WATER
mbia River from the Hanford nuclear reactors contain small amounts of many different radioisotopes. Recently developed instrumental techniques for the analyses of comnplex mixtures of radioisotopes were used to measure the radioisotopic composition of the river water and of organisms which utilized the river or which were maintained on high concentrations of direct effluent water. More than thirty radioisotopes have been identified and measured from Columbia River water. None were present in quantities near the limits for drinking water. All aquatic organisms which were common to the river downstream from the reactors were more radioactive than the water they inhabited. The kinds and amounts of radioactive materials which were concentrated differed among species of organisms. These differences were functions of several ecological and physiological factors. In general the plants, which are at the beginning of the food-chain contained the largest number of isotopes and organism progressively farther up the series contained fewer. Fifteen different radioisotopes were measured from plankton collected near the reactors. Carnivorous fish for the same area contained significant quantities of P/sup 32/, Zn/sup 65/, and Cr/sup 51/ and traces of three to five other isotopes. The concentration of most isotopes in animals collected from the river were lower during the winter than during the summer because of differences in metabolic rates. , and Cr/sup 51/ were measured in some organisms which were collected at the mouth of the river which is over 360 miles below the reactors. - The total concentrationof radioactive materials in barley plants harvested from experimental plots irrigated with undiluted reactor effluent water was no more than twice that of barley irrigated with control water. Zn/sup 65/ was the most concentrated gamma emitter in the plants. This correlated with the radioisotopic comp;osition of terrestrial plants which were irrigated under natural conditions with water pumped from the river near the reactors. No effects from the radioactive material were observed, even plots irrigated for seven years were undiluted effluent. Eight radioisotopes were ntained for one year with concentrated reactor effluent water as their sole source of drinking water. Zn/sup 65/ was the most abundant radioisotope measured in both bone and soft tissue. P/sup 32/ was the second most abundant in both types of tissues. Despite the fact that the water drank contained concentrations of radioisotopes several thousand times higher than those which exist in the Columbia river immediately below the reactors, all radioisotopic concentrations measured were found to be only small fractions of the maximum permissible for humans by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- General Electric Co. Hanford Atomic Products Operation, Richland, Wash.
- NSA Number:
- NSA-12-014516
- OSTI ID:
- 4329874
- Report Number(s):
- A/CONF.15/P/393
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Prepared for the Second U.N. International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, 1958. Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-58
- Country of Publication:
- Country unknown/Code not available
- Language:
- English
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AGRICULTURE- BARLEY- CEREALS- GAMMA SOURCES- PLANTS- QUANTITY RATIO- RADIATION EFFECTS- RADIOISOTOPES- REACTORS- VARIATIONS- WASTE DISPOSAL- WATER- ZINC 65
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