부산대학교 도서관

Three different types of soil were collected at each of three locations: a persimmon orchard, an ume (Prunus mume, so to speak, ‘a Japanese apricot’) orchard, and a paddy field located 50-55 km northwest from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The goal was to investigate the involvement of microbes inhabiting these soils on the behavior of 137Cs. The soils were sterilized with gamma ray irradiation for 30 hours (absorbed dose of 60 kGy) or with high-pressure steam (autoclave sterilization) at 121°C for 20 minutes. A radish cultivar (Raphanus sativus var. sativus) was then cultivated in those soils for 45 days, and the harvested taproots and leaves were testing using a Ge semiconductor detector for concentration of 137Cs. The result showed that the concentration of 137Cs in radishes cultivated in the sterilized soils with autoclave sterilization or gamma ray irradiation were significantly higher than in those cultivated in the unsterilized soils. An increase in the plant available 137Cs could be caused by NH4+ arisen from the multiple effects of the structural change of the soil, decomposition of organic matter, and/or extinction of the microbes by sterilization.