Investigation of tritium content in wild plants growing in an area with an underground source of tritium

Andrei Vyacheslavovich Mikhailov; Sergey Nikolaevich Lukashenko; Andrei Vladislavovich Thomson; Mariya Alexandrovna Edomskaya

doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107602

Investigation of tritium content in wild plants growing in an area with an underground source of tritium

J Environ Radioact. 2024 Dec 20:282:107602. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107602. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Andrei Vyacheslavovich Mikhailov¹, Sergey Nikolaevich Lukashenko², Andrei Vladislavovich Thomson², Mariya Alexandrovna Edomskaya²

Affiliations

¹ FSBI All-Russian Research Institute of Radiology and Agroecology of the NRC, Kurchatov Institute. Obninsk, Kaluga Region Russian Federation, Russia. Electronic address: mikhajlovav@oiate.ru.
² FSBI All-Russian Research Institute of Radiology and Agroecology of the NRC, Kurchatov Institute. Obninsk, Kaluga Region Russian Federation, Russia.

PMID: 39708541
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107602

Abstract

Within the framework of the presented work, the results of large-scale studies of the content of TFWT in wild plants growing in an area with an underground source of tritium are presented. Various types of plants were studied: herbaceous, shrubby, woody. The concentration of TFWT in various vegetative organs of the same plants was analyzed separately. Sampling was carried out throughout the growing season from germination to wilting of plants. Additionally, plants with aerial intake of tritium were studied. The concentration of TFWT in the leaves of plants at the root pathway of tritium intake into plants is on average 0.71 of the concentration of TFWT in the stems of the same plants. This value varies from 0.30 ± 0.06 to 1.1 ± 0.3 for plants of different species, but never exceeds 1 significantly. The concentration of TFWT in the leaves of plants with an aerial intake of tritium is on average 1.5 times higher than the concentration of TFWT in the stems of the same plants. This value varies from 0.86 ± 0.59 to 2.9 ± 1.9, but never significantly below 1. The concentration of TFWT in the same vegetative organs of herbaceous plants of different species growing on the same site differs significantly - up to 2.6 times. The concentration of TFWT in the vegetative organs of herbaceous and woody plants also differs significantly - up to 2.3 times. The concentration of TFWT in the same vegetative organs of plants of different species can vary up to 3.5 times. At the same time, the concentration of TFWT in shrubby and woody plants does not differ so significantly - the average difference is 1.2 times, with the largest detected difference being 1.4 times. There is practically no significant difference between the content of TFWT in different types of woody and shrubby plants. The dependence of the concentration of TFWT in the vegetative organs of plants of the same species at different vegetative stages was found. The concentration of TFWT in the same vegetative organ of a plant of the same species varies up to 14 times and, as a rule, decreases significantly by the end of the growing season. Thus, it is proved that the distribution of tritium over the vegetative organs of wild plants is uneven. It depends on the mechanism of tritium intake into the plant, the type of plant, its vegetation phase. An innovative method is proposed for determining the mechanism of tritium intake into a plant by the coefficient M - the ratio of TFWT in leaves to TFWT in plant stems. At a value of the coefficient M below 1, the intake of tritium into vegetation is predominantly root, at a value above 1- it is aerial.