Wheat cultivars with minimum uptake of 137Cs and 90Sr

Soil-to-plant transfer of 137Cs and 90Sr was investigated in 28 winter wheat cultivars grown on three different sites in Bavaria. Transfer factors were calculated and evaluated. The mean transfer factors at all sites were (5.5 ± 0.7)x10-4 for 137Cs and (1.23 ± 0.20)x10-1 for 90Sr, respectively. Thus, transfer factors of 90Sr were more than two orders of magnitude higher than those of 137Cs. For both radionuclides, they varied by a factor of up to 3 from cultivar to cultivar at a given site and from site to site for a given cultivar. For evaluation normalised transfer factors (transfer factor/mean transfer factor of all cultivars) for each site and site-averaged normalised transfer factors (mean of the normalised transfer factor of the three sites) were calculated. The three cultivars Flair, Kornett and Previa showed to have significantly lower transfer factors for 137Cs than the site-specific mean at each site. The three cultivars Convent, Semper and Ludwig showed to have significantly lower transfer factors for 90Sr than the site-specific mean at each site. No correlation was observed between the root uptake of 137Cs and 90Sr. (author)