Transfer of technetium from soil to paddy and upland rice.

Abstract

Soil-plant transfer factors (concentration ratio between the plant and soil) of technetium in paddy and upland rice plants were obtained from laboratory experiments. The transfer factor is one of the most important parameters for environmental radiation dose assessment. Technetim tracer (95mTcO4-) was added to the soil prior to rice cultivation. The transfer factor of technetium for the hulled grains (brown rice) of paddy rice (< or = 0.0002) was much lower than for that of upland (0.021). The transfer factors for both types of hulled grains were much lower than in the leaves. The technetium decontamination rate from hulled grains by polishing was 34%, the percentage of the weight decrease being 12%. The concentration of technetium in the soil solution collected from the paddy rice soil (flooded conditions) decreased rapidly with time due to its adsorption on the soil. In the upland rice soil (non-flooded) solution, the decrease in the technetium concentration was fairly slow. The low transfer factors for the paddy rice plants could be explained by the immobilization of technetium in the flooded soil. The oxidation-reduction potentials (Eh) in the flooded soil decreased rapidly with time. We conclude that technetium tracer added as TcO4- to flooded soil is readily transformed to an insoluble form (e.g. TcO2) under the reducing conditions provided by flooding.