Immobilization and reduction of the availability of radiocontaminants in soils

Previous annual reports (1977, 1978) demonstrated the beneficial effect that the complexation of transition metals (to which some radio-contaminants belong) with tetraethylenepentamine (tetren) can have on plant growth. Over the past year, the experimental work was focussed on three important aspects: comparison of the uptake of free tetren and of the metal-tetren complex; growth experiments using a natural clay soil; and biodegradation of chelated and unchelated tetren in soils. Throughout the study, copper was used as the model-transition-metal. (Auth.)