Uptake of 226Ra by established vegetation and black cutworm larvae, Agrotis ipsilon (class Insecta: order Lepidoptera), on U mill tailings at Elliot Lake, Canada.
Radium-226 levels in samples from an inactive U tailings site at Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada, were: 9,140 +/- 500 mBq g-1 dry weight in the substrate; 62 +/- 1 mBq g-1 dry weight in rye, Secale cereale, and less than 3.7 mBq g-1 dry weight in oats, Avena sativa, the dominant species established by revegetation of the tailings; and 117 +/- 7 mBq g-1 dry weight in washed and unwashed black cutworm larvae. Concentration ratios were: vegetation to tailings 0.001-0.007; black cutworms to vegetation 3.6 and black cutworms to tailings 0.01. The values are considered too low to be considered a hazard to herring gulls, Larus argentatus, which occasionally feed on cutworms.
Clulow
F V
FV
Department of Biology, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Davé
N K
NK
Lim
T P
TP
Cloutier
N R
NR
D000818:Animals; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000378:metabolism*; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000378:metabolism*; D008906:Mining; D009864:Ontario; D011850:Radioactive Waste; D011883:Radium / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D012434:Secale / Q000378:metabolism; D014501:Uranium
D011850:Radioactive Waste; D014501:Uranium; D011883:Radium