ACTA AGRONOMICA VOLUME 39. (A MTA AGRÁRTUDOMÁNYI KÖZLEMÉNYEI, 1990)

1990 / 1-2. szám - SOIL SCIENCE AND AGROCHEMISTRY - A. S. SZABÓ: Did the radioactive pollution - inconsequence of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear facility - have a positive influence on the plants in Hungary?

- Acta Agronomica Hungarica, Vol. 39 (1—2), pp. 3 —10 (1990) Soil science and agrochemistry DID THE RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE DISASTER AT THE CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR FACILITY - HAVE A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON THE PLANTS IN HUNGARY? A. S. SZABÓ UNIVERSITY OF HORTICULTURE AND FOOD INDUSTRY, FOOD CHEMISTRY AND NUTRITION SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (Received: 14 December 1937; accepted in revised form 18 February 1988) Due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (26.04.1986. USSR) the radioactive contamination level; e.g. 131I, 134Cs, 137Cs of the soil-plant-animal-man biological-chain increased significantly in Hungary, as in other European countries. The external dose burden from the contaminated ground-surface and atmosphere, and the radioactive isotopes taken up mostly directly through the leaves had a low-dose effect on the plants, which was in the dose-range of stimulation (biopositive effect). Keywords: Chernobyl, contamination, low-dose, nuclear accident, radioactive isotopes, radiostimulation Introduction There are various natural radioisotopes — e.g. 40K, 226Ra —- which cause (connected with the cosmic radiation) the natural background radiation level in the biological chain; but in consequence of the nuclear weapon tests the biosphere has been contaminated also with artificial radioisotopes — e.g. 89Sr, 90Sr, 131I, 134Cs, 137Cs, 140Ba — mainly with fission products. In the last 2 decades, till 1985 (after the Moscow atom-stop agreement, 1963) the natural radiation level was much higher than the artificial one in Hungary, and generally throughout Europe. However in 1986 — due to the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear facility — the radioactive contamination increased significantly, also in the countries rather far from Chernobyl (Láng, 1986) (Szabó, 1986), (Sieker, 1986), (De­worm, 1987). Radioactive pollution and radiation dose Figures 1 and 2 show the ground surface contamination, corrected for May, 1986, and the time dependence of the ground surface contamination due to the measured isotopes (Biró et al., 1986). Acta Agronomica Hungarica 39, 1909 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1*

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