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Transfer factors of 226Ra, 210Pb and 210Po from NORM-contaminated oilfield soil to some Atriplex species, Alfalfa and Bermuda grass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2013

M.S. Al-Masri ,
H. Mukalallati  and
A. Al-Hamwi
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Abstract

Transfer factors of 226Ra, 210Pb and 210Po from soil contaminated with naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in oilfields to some grazing plants were determined using pot experiments. Contaminated soil was collected from a dry surface evaporation pit from a Syrian oilfield in the Der Ezzor area. Five types of plants (Atriplex halimus L., Atriplex canescens, Atriplex Leucoclada Bioss, Alfalfa and Bermuda grass) were grown and harvested three times over two years. The results show that the mean transfer factors of 226Ra from the contaminated soil to the studied plant species were 1.6 × 10-3 for Atriplex halimus L., 2.1 × 10-3 for Atriplex canescens, 2.5 × 10-3 for Atriplex Leucoclada Bioss, 8.2 × 10-3 for Bermuda grass, and the highest value was 1.7 × 10-2 for Alfalfa. Transfer factors of 210Pb and 210Po were higher than 226Ra TFs by one order of magnitude and reached 7 × 10-3, 1.1 × 10-2, 1.2 × 10-2, 3.2 × 10-2 and 2.5 × 10-2 for Atriplex halimus, Atriplex canescens, Atriplex Leucoclada Bioss, Bermuda grass and Alfalfa, respectively. The results can be considered as base values for transfer factors of 226Ra, 210Pb and 210Po in semiarid regions.

Keywords

transfer factorRadium-266Lead-210Polonium-210Atriplex, Alfalfa, Bermuda grassescontaminated soilNORMSyrian oilfield
Type
Research Article
Information
Radioprotection , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 27 - 33
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2013

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