Study of soil–to–plant transfer factors (TFs) of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K on plants cultivated on ex–tin mining land in Bangka Belitung, Indonesia

Abstract

Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) are of fundamental importance in measuring the environmental impact due to the presence of radioactivity in soil and agricultural crops. The present study thus to measure soil-to-plant TFs of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K on horticultural plants cultivated on ex–tin mining land in Bangka Belitung islands. There were 21 samples of 15 species and 13 families from 17 locations comprising four vegetables species, five fruits species, three staple foods species, and three others. The TFs were measured in leaves, fruit, cereal, kernel, shoot, or rhizome. The results showed that 238U and 137Cs were almost not found in plants, whereas 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were measured. In soursop leaf, common pepper leaf, and cassava peel, on 226Ra, the TFs for the non–edible parts, (0.42 ± 0.02; 1.05 ± 0.17; 0.32 ± 0.01 respectively) were significantly higher than soursop fruit, common pepper seed, and cassava root for the edible parts (0.01 ± 0.005; 0.29 ± 0.09; 0.04 ± 0.02 respectively).