In-vivo estimates for the uptake of caesium-137 by cattle grazing contaminated pasture around the Esk and Irt estuaries, Cumbria, U.K.

Abstract

Sea water contaminated with diluted radioactive effluent from the Windscale nuclear complex in Cumbria periodically floods low-lying grazing pasture around the estuaries of the rivers Esk, Irt and Mite near Ravenglass. During 1979, an experiment was carried out to measure the transfer of caesium-137 from grass to muscle in cows grazing these pastures. Grass samples were taken and in vivo external gamma-ray measurements were made on cattle. A very low transfer coefficient was found, less than 9 × 10 −4 days kg −1 with a best estimate of 4 × 10 −4 days kg −1, compared with a more usual value of around 3 × 10 −2 days kg −1. The low transfer seems to occur because the bulk of the caesium-137 on the grass is bound to resuspended estuarine surface sediment deposited during flooding. In this form, the caesium-137 is only poorly absorbed across the gut of the grazing cattle.