TREATMENTS FOR FARMLAND CONTAMINATED WITH RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL 



15 



fectii'B method of removing a surface deposit of 

 radioactive material. More than 95 percent may 

 be removed if scraping is carefully clone. Scrap- 

 ing should be done before the contaminated soil 

 has been cultivated. Even in favorable circum- 

 stances, about one hour of equipment time per 

 acre is required for soil removal and disposal. 

 Scraping rough or stony soil, or that covered by 

 coai'se vegetation, is less eti'ective and requires 

 more effort. Various kinds of scraping machinery 

 could be used, but those providing easy depth 

 control and self-loading reduce the effort of soil 

 removal and disposal. Scraping treatments may 

 also be effective for contaminated snow surfaces. 



^4 rotary-brush street sweeper removes more 

 than 75 percent of radioactive particles that have 

 been deposited on a. relatively hard, smooth soil 

 surface. Two or three passages of the sweeper 

 remove additional contamination, and the amount 

 of soil to be disposed of is much smaller than 

 with scraping equipment. This treatment may 

 also be effective on ice or frozen soil surfaces. 



Vegetative cover would intercept part of a 

 deposit of radioactive material, aTvd removing the 

 vegetation might remove up to half of the radio- 

 active material. Removal of vegetation might be 

 a necessary preliminary to a more effective treat- 

 ment such as scraping. Conventional forage- 

 liarvesting machinery could be used to remove 

 vegetation. 



Lime, fertilizer, or other amsndments may re- 

 duce the entini of radionuclides from, contami- 

 nated soils into crops. Use of lime and fertilizers 

 for optimum economic return often gives the best 

 reduction in radionuclide uptake. Hence, although 

 tlie reduced uptake may be 70 or 80 percent of 

 that with no treatment, it can be obtained at no 

 cost. Some other amendments, including large 

 applications of ammonium pliospliate or sodium 

 carbonate (the latter plowed deeply with the 

 contaminated soil), may reduce radionuclide up- 

 take much more effectively. However, the reduc- 

 tion in uptake is less than would be obtained by 

 scraping a suitable soil surface, and the treat- 

 ments would probably be more costly than scrap- 

 ing. 



Alternatives to decontamiriation and soil man- 

 agement treatments should be considered, espe- 

 cially if the radioactive material is widespread, 

 because of the great effort required for effective 

 treatment of contaminated land. Some altei-na- 

 tives are growing crops that take up small 

 amounts of radionuclides and removing radionu- 

 clides from milk and other products by treatment 

 during processing. The treatment of contaminated 

 land might then be limited to those areas needed 

 for the production of certain vegetable or fruit 

 crops. 



LITERATURE CITED 



(1) Aleksakhin, R. M. 



196.^. [radioactive contamination of soil and 

 plants]. Translated from Russian by the 

 U.S. Atomic Energy Comn., AEC-tr-6631, 

 pp. 68-86. 



(2) Andersen, A, J. 



1067. REDUCTION OF THE STRONTIUM-90 UPTAKE 

 BY BARLEY THROUGH HIGH-TEMPERATUBE 

 TREATMENT AND DEEP PLACEMENT OF THE 



CONTAMINATED SOIL LAYER. In Radioeco- 

 logical Concentration Processes, pp. 421- 

 427. Ed. by B. Aberg and F. P. Hungate, 

 Pergamon, Oxford. 



(3) Bachtell, M. a., Willard, C. J., and Taylor, 

 G. S. 



1956. building fertility in exposed subsoil. 

 Ohio Agr. Expt. Sta. Res. Bui. 782, 35 pp. 



(4) Cline, J. F., and Hungate, F. P. 



1956. EFFECT of STRONTIUM AND CALCIUM IN SOIL 

 ON UPTAKE OF SR-90 BY' BARLEY PLANTS. 



U.S. Atomic Energy Comn. HW 41500: 

 81-84. 



(5) Deering, R. E. 



1967. low-cost farming without a moldboard. 

 Farm Quarterly 22 (1) : 92-95, 132-138. 



(6) Evans, E. J., and Dekker, A. J. 



1963. the EFFECT OF POTASSIUil FERTILIZATION 

 ON THE STRONTIUM-90 CONTENT OF CROPS. 



Canad. .Jour. Soil Sci. 43: 309-315. 



(7) Frere, M. H., Larson, K. H., Menzel, R. G., and 

 Others. 



1963. THE BEHAVIOR OF RADIO.\CTIVE FALLOUT IN 



SOILS AND PLA.NTS. Natl. Acad. Sci. Natl. 

 Res. Council Pub. 1092, Washington, D.C., 

 32 pp. 



