title: In-vivo estimates for the uptake of caesium-137 by cattle grazing contaminated pasture around the ESK and IRT estuaries, Cumbria, U.K.
abstract: Sea water contaminated with diluted radioactive effluent from the Windscale nuclear complex in Cumbria periodically floods low-lying grazing pasture around the estuaries of the rivers Esk, Irt and Mite near Ravenglass. During 1979, an experiment was carried out to measure the transfer of caesium-137 from grass to muscle in cows grazing these pastures. Grass samples were taken in a vivo external gamma-ray measurements were made on cattle. A very low transfer coefficient was found, less than 9 X 10-4 days kg-1 with a best estimate of 4 X 10-4 days kg-1, compared with a more usual value of around 3 X 10-2 days kg-1. The low transfer seems to occur because the bulk of the caesium-137 on the grass is bound to resuspended estuarine surface sediment deposited during flooding. In this form, the caesium-137 is only poorly absorbed across the gut of the grazing cattle.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000378:metabolism*; D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism; D006109:Poaceae / Q000032:analysis; D011848:Radioactive Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis; D006113:United Kingdom; D014878:Water Pollution, Radioactive
chemical_list: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D011848:Radioactive Pollutants; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive