Accumulation of radionuclides from radioactive substrata by some micromycetes

Abstract

Overgrowing (interaction) and dissolution of intact and milled hot particles by various micromycetes were studied under laboratory conditions. Hot particles used for the investigation originated from the Chernobyl accident release and atomic bomb testing sites. The micromycetes investigated were mitosporic fungi mainly isolated from the Chernobyl site and vicinity. Most of the fungal species and strains showed a tendency to grow towards the hot particle, overgrow it and dissolve it after prolonged contact. The accumulation (absorption and adsorption) of radionuclides from intact hot particles was generally more intensive for 152Eu than for 137Cs by a factor of about 2.6–134, while in experiments with milled samples the 152Eu and 137Cs accumulation was similar, except for some fungal species, which showed higher 152Eu than 137Cs sorption. It could be shown that the main factors influencing Cs and Eu accumulation in fungi are: fungal species and strains and the size and composition of the hot particle.