Sampling of technetium-99 in vegetation and soils in the vicinity of operating gaseous facilities. Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 1550

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5008976· OSTI ID:5008976

Hoffman, F. O.; Huckabee, J. W.; Lucas, D. M.; Garten, Jr., C. T.; Scott, T. G.; Walker, R. L.; Gouge, P. S.; Holmes, C. V.

Technetium-99 was measured in vegetation and soils collected near three operating gaseous diffusion facilities to obtain estimates of the soil-to-vegetation concentration factor. Analyses were performed primarily using radiochemical separations and low-level beta counting techniques with selected samples checked by isotope dilution mass spectroscopy. The concentration factor pooled from all three facilities appeared to be lognormally distributed with a geometric mean of 9.5 and a geometric standard deviation of 2.4. These values are comparable to calculated equilibrium concentration factors derived from other field experiments in which concentrations in soil and vegetation were observed to decrease with time subsequent to a single application of/sup 95m/TcO/sub 4//sup -/. These field values are one to two orders of magnitude less than concentration factors derived from laboratory experiments using potted plants. It is suggested that the radiologic significance of /sup 99/Tc in terrestrial food chains of importance to humans may be substantially lower than indicated by the simple difference between laboratory and field concentration factors if the time dependence of technetium activity in vegetation and soil is taken into consideration in radiological assessment models.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5008976
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-7386
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400103 -- Radiometric & Radiochemical Procedures-- (-1987)
510301* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Soil-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA DETECTION
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHARGED PARTICLE DETECTION
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DETECTION
ENERGY LEVELS
ERRORS
EXCITED STATES
FIELD TESTS
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTS
HOURS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
ISOTOPE DILUTION
ISOTOPE SEPARATION PLANTS
ISOTOPES
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
METASTABLE STATES
MONITORING
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANTS
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIOISOTOPES
SOILS
SPECTROSCOPY
TECHNETATES
TECHNETIUM 99
TECHNETIUM COMPOUNDS
TECHNETIUM ISOTOPES
TESTING
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES