Transfer behavior of 40 K, 238 U, 232 Th and 137 Cs from soil to plants in upper egypt

For one of the most important cattle's fodder in upper egypt, alfalfa, the concentrations of the radionuclides of 40 K, 238 U-series and 137 Cs were measured using high-resolution, high efficiency gamma spectrometer based on H P germanium detector. The concentration values are in Bq.Kg-1 (dry weight) for these radionuclides and have the ranges (783-2046), (2.3-17.5) and (1.8-46.0) respectively. The soil-to-plant transfer factor for wet weight were found to have the ranges (0.054-0.96), (0.0054-0.22), (0.013-0.16) and (0.0006-0.048) for 40 K, 238 U, 232 Th and 137 Cs respectively. 2 figs., 3 tabs