Soil-milk transfer of 137Cs in an area of Byelorussia after the Chernobyl accident

Abstract

Radiocaesium activity concentrations in soil and cows' milk were measured in an area of Byelorussia contaminated after the Chernobyl accident. Measurement data were used to calculate the soil-milk transfer factor (TF) for 137Cs. An analysis of the relationship between the TF and soil contamination shows a decreasing trend in the TF values with increasing soil contamination levels. The function derived to described the dependence of the TF on soil contamination predicts the largest decrease in transfer factor at low contamination levels and approximately constant behaviour at higher levels.