Parameter Data on the Radiocesium Transfer to Korean Staple Food Crops Following a Nuclear Accident

In order to decide an optimum countermeasure against farmland contaminations following a severe NPP accident, it is necessary to have a reliable tool for predicting the concentrations of radiocesium in crop plants. For the estimation of radionuclide concentrations in crop plants, various transfer parameters, which quantify the radionuclide transfer from one compartment to the next, are used in general. Some amount of transfer parameter data has been produced at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) over the last 30 years. The present work was conducted to collate the KAERI data on radiocesium in staple food crops and to suggest effective ways of using them for assessing the environmental impact of a nuclear accident. The transfer parameter values of radiocesium for rice, Chinese cabbage and radish varied considerably with soils and times of its deposition. The proposed representative values were mostly based on a limited amount of data so they cannot be considered to have a high representativeness. Accordingly, they are intended for provisional use and a continuous improvement should be made. It is necessary to produce a sufficient amount of additional domestic data on the indirect pathway by conducting root-uptake experiments with as many types of soil as possible