The deposition of radioiodine onto rice plant from atmosphere

Radiation dose estimations are usually made with the aid of assessment models in which model parameters such as the transfer factors of radionuclides from one environmental compartment to another are involved. In simple models the parameters are often described as the concentration ratio of a radionuclide between two compartments, when the system is under equilibrium condition. In this paper, the authors introduce the values of the parameters of radioiodine obtained by tracer experiments. Laboratory experiments on the transfer parameters of radionuclides from the atmosphere to rice plant were carried out in the atmosphere-to-crops system (deposition pathway). It is known that the typical chemical species of gaseous iodine in the atmosphere are elemental iodine (I2) and methyliodide (CH3I). The deposition characteristics of both chemical species of gaseous iodine to rice grains were obtained. Mass normalized deposition velocity (VD) and grain number normalized deposition velocity (VS) of gaseous elemental iodine (I2) and also methyliodide (CH3I) on unhulled rice were measured. Both VD and VS of methyliodide were about one percent of those of elemental iodine. Distribution pattern of methyliodide between unhulled rice and brown rice was significantly lower than that of elemental one. For wet deposition, we investigated the retention of radioiodines (iodide [I-] and iodate [IO3-] on rice grains and their translocation from the surface of the grains to brown rice. Though the ears were dipped into the solution containing 125I- or 125IO3- more than 15 min., both iodine species in the solutions were hardly taken up to the rice grains. The transfer rates of iodide and iodate, which are defined as 'the amount of the iodine in brown rice' divided by 'the amount of iodide in unhulled rice' were about 0.015 and 0.04, respectively. The rates were not changed with time after the radioiodine application. (author)