Abstract
A MAJOR concern to environmentalists, health physicists and radioecologists is the fate of 137Cs released to the environment from existing light-water power stations (estimated annual discharge of 137Cs as liquid effluent exceeds 2.0 Ci per yr per power station) and future nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities1. Its long half life (30 yr) and its ability to be readily assimilated into body tissues make it potentially one of the most hazardous radionuclides for man. Numerous investigations into the fate of 137Cs in terrestrial environments have revealed that soils exhibit a marked capacity to retain 137Cs; thus soils act as a ‘sink’ for 137Cs released to the environment2,3, and sediments retain 137Cs in a similar fashion in aquatic environments4,5.
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FRANCIS, C., BRINKLEY, F. Preferential adsorption of 137Cs to micaceous minerals in contaminated freshwater sediment. Nature 260, 511–513 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/260511a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/260511a0
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