Transuranium actinide contamination

To the extent that diet contributes to internal body burdens, a comparison of the relative plant uptake of actinides from soil is of interest. Several studies have compared the uptake of various transuranium elements by plants (17,18,19). However, studies which include U and Th are not as available. Figure 2 presents recent results for field-grown vegetation of soil originally contaminated in 1944 with soluble forms of U, Th and Pu (and daughter Am) (20.21). The crops examined include soybeans, snapbeans,... 

Summary. Through an examination of the comparative behavior of the actinide elements in terrestrial and aquatic food chains, the anticipated accumulation behavior of the transuranium elements by people was described. The available data suggests that Pu, Am and Cm will not accumulate to a greater degree than U in the skeletons of individuals exposed to environmentally dispersed activity. The nature of the contamination event, the chemical and physical associations in soils and sediments, the proximity to the... 

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