Transfer factor of natural radionuclides from clay loam soil to sesame and Cowpea: radiological hazards

This work investigated the transfer factor of radionuclides fromclay loam soil to sesame and cowpea plants. materials and methods: twentysamples from the plant and twenty samples from its soil were collected fromfive different locations (farms). gamma-ray spectrometry was used todetermine the activity concentration for the samples. in addition, the soilphysicochemical characteristics such as ph value, the amount of organiccontent and texture of soil were investigated by ph meter, walkley-black andparticle size distribution (pipette) methods, respectively. results: the averageactivity concentrations, respectively, of 226ra, 232th, and 40k were 12.75, 10.20and 131.75 bq kg-1 for the clay loam soil, 5.20, 4.15 and 171.00 bq kg-1 forsesame and 6.70, 5.60 and 182.90 bq kg-1 for cowpea. the transfer factorfrom soil to sesame and cowpea was discussed. the average values oftransfer factor were 0.51, 0.53 and 1.36 (for cowpea) and 0.42, 0.43 and 1.33(for sesame), respectively for 226ra, 232th and 40k. the results showed that thetransfer factor in cowpea is much greater than that in sesame. as a result ofthe ingestion of the radionuclides from the plants, the average annual dosewas lower than the 290 μsv y-1 world average. conclusion: accordingly, theradiological risk due to the intake of the natural radionuclides in these plantswas immaterial.